Popular API Articles

API authentication verifies who or what is making a request. API authorization determines what that authenticated identity is allowed to do. They are related security layers, but they solve different problems and should be designed independently.

APIs are the contracts that allow backend systems, frontend applications, mobile apps, third-party integrations, and internal services to communicate. A good API hides implementation details while exposing a stable way to request data, trigger actions, and exchange information between systems.

Modern distributed systems rely on communication protocols that define how services exchange data. As a software developer designing APIs, microservices, real-time systems, or event-driven platforms, choosing the correct protocol directly impacts latency , scalability , observability , cost , and de

Microservice architectures often contain dozens of internal APIs, but exposing those services directly to browsers, mobile applications, and external clients creates coupling between clients and the internal service topology. API Gateways and Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) services solve different parts

APIs are the contracts that allow microservices to evolve independently. A well-designed API exposes stable business capabilities while hiding internal schemas, implementation details, and deployment decisions.

API performance is not limited to producing the lowest possible response time. A production API must remain responsive under normal traffic, sudden spikes, slow downstream services, partial infrastructure failures, and unexpected client behavior.

APIs rarely remain unchanged. New product requirements introduce additional fields, updated validation rules, improved resource models, and different response structures. However, mobile applications, third-party integrations, internal services, and customer systems may continue depending on an olde

API pagination , filtering , and sorting control how clients retrieve large collections without loading every record at once. These features directly affect database performance, response latency, consistency, cache behavior, and the long-term stability of an API contract.

API rate limiting controls how many requests a client may send during a defined period. Throttling controls how the system responds when traffic exceeds its allowed rate or the infrastructure approaches capacity.

REST remains the most common architectural style for public APIs , mobile backends, SaaS platforms, and microservices. While building a REST API is relatively simple, designing one that remains intuitive, backward compatible, scalable, and maintainable for years requires much more than choosing HTTP