intermediate

Rendering strategies

SSR, SSG, ISR, CSR, streaming, and partial prerendering as latency, freshness, and cache trade-offs.

Rendering interviews in Next.js are trade-off questions about freshness, latency, personalization, and cacheability. SSR, SSG, ISR, CSR, streaming, and partial prerendering are not badges — they are delivery choices per route.

Subtopics: per-request SSR, build-time SSG, time-based ISR, client-heavy CSR, Suspense streaming, and static shells with dynamic holes.

On interviews: given a product page scenario, pick a mode and name invalidation, SEO impact, and cost.

Common pitfalls: forcing SSR everywhere, CSR-only shells with weak HTML, and ignoring CDN cache headers.

Checklist:

Match mode to freshness and personalization.
Name where HTML is produced.
Plan revalidation for hybrid modes.
Measure LCP and TTFB implications.