I don't really agree with the entire premise. At first I read about this trying to understand what the security implications are of obscured pagination tokens. Why would one want to obfuscate pagination tokens from hackers?
Turns out, it's to make things more opaque for one's own team ::scream emoji::
This is simply not a good way to work, sorry.
Either implement paging the way the frontend team wants and expects it to work, or take the time to explain in a clear and friendly why you cannot (i.e. the data is not structured as pages, specs were clear and rigid, whatever). With healthy interteam communication, there won't be a need to obfuscate pagination tokens in this manner.
It reads like OP built something as a backend engineer without reference to client or user needs and then threw it over the wall to the frontend team. Not good.
Turns out, it's to make things more opaque for one's own team ::scream emoji::
This is simply not a good way to work, sorry.
Either implement paging the way the frontend team wants and expects it to work, or take the time to explain in a clear and friendly why you cannot (i.e. the data is not structured as pages, specs were clear and rigid, whatever). With healthy interteam communication, there won't be a need to obfuscate pagination tokens in this manner.
It reads like OP built something as a backend engineer without reference to client or user needs and then threw it over the wall to the frontend team. Not good.