GraphQL backends becoming more efficient and performant: Takeaways from GraphQL Conf 2023

The first-ever GraphQL Conf, hosted by GraphQL Foundation, took place in San Francisco between September 19th and 21st. During the conference, various key takeaways were highlighted regarding the future of GraphQL. One major development was the Supergraph Challenge, which encouraged attendees to build and execute the fastest GraphQL federated query. Another significant announcement was the launch of a more open spec called GraphQL Fusion, aimed at addressing distributed GraphQL gateway problems. The conference also saw discussions on how modern architectures in frontend frameworks are shifting data fetching and rendering to the server, with React Server Components solving client-side overfetching and underfetching that GraphQL used to solve for clients. Furthermore, various announcements were made regarding improvements in backend story for GraphQL, including Federation, Grafast, Dataloader 3.0, and Hasura Data Delivery Network (DDN). Overall, the conference highlighted an exciting future for GraphQL backends, with a focus on efficiency, composability, performance, and openness.