Practical Guide to JSON Performance Optimization

Serialization optimization

Reduce payload size and CPU time by trimming unnecessary fields and flattening structures.

Trim unnecessary fields

const data = { id: 1, name: "Alice", debug: "..." };
const safe = (({ id, name }) => ({ id, name }))(data);
const json = JSON.stringify(safe);

Control depth and shape

Prefer flat structures or reference maps to avoid deep nesting and duplication.

Parsing optimization

Incremental and chunked parsing

Parse large data in chunks to reduce peak memory and latency.

function parseChunks(chunks: string[]) {
  return chunks.map((c) => JSON.parse(c));
}

Streaming interfaces

Use Node.js streams to process data progressively rather than loading entire files.

Transport optimization

Compression and caching

Enable gzip/br and leverage ETag/Cache-Control to minimize repeated transfers.

Protocol choice and pagination

Adopt HTTP/2 and paginate responses to reduce head-of-line blocking and payload size.

Summary

Optimize across the lifecycle: simplify at producers, balance parsing at consumers, and employ compression and caching on the wire for end-to-end gains.