Best way to handle large amount of records What is the best way to handle 20,000 simple records?  The records need to be searchable and linked to categories.  What is the best way to handle so many records when each records or entry would be a simple phrase 5-10 words max.

I thought of categories but thinking 20k anything has to be thought out.  Since categories may or may not be most efficient, any ideas or way that you have done this in the past before with success?
In sake of performance it would be better to create a custom field type and one or two record(s). 

You can store your information/records in a separate table and link them with their ID to a category. Craft CMS will create a record in at least 4 tables for every elements and it has to join those tables to populate it. So an additional amount of 20k will decrease your performance for sure.

It's better to create a separate table rather than using categories for this task. You can combine your records with other elements with an normal Query like Craft does it with it's  ElementCriteriaModel.

It's going to be much more work if you are not used to Craft but it will help you in the future as a good practice