Practical Guide to JSON Performance Optimization
2025-12-08#JSON#Performance#Frontend#Backend
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.
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