The view state limit is the maximum size of the serialized version of the page state that can be transferred between the server and the client. The view state includes the components, field values, and controller state of the page. To reduce the view state size, a developer can use a StandardSetController, which allows the developer to create pagination for a set of records without having to manually manage the query and the results. A StandardSetController can handle up to 10,000 records, and only the records that are displayed on the current page are included in the view state. This way, the developer can avoid querying and storing all the records in a list variable, which would increase the view state size and potentially cause errors. References:
* Visualforce Developer Guide: StandardSetController Methods
* Visualforce Developer Guide: Working with Very Large SOQL Queries
* Trailhead: Visualforce Basics