I found the answer in the Strapi source code itself. it’s not in the documentation.
We can use limit and start directly in the populate field.
const query = {
populate: {
articles: {
sort: "title:asc",
limit: 10,
start: 10,
},
},
};
const queryToString = qs.stringify(query, { encode: false });
const {
data: { data: categories },
} = await axiosApiInstance.get(
`${BACKEND_BASE_URL}categories/${id}?${queryToString}`
);