REST API Design
REST (Representational State Transfer) uses HTTP verbs and resource-oriented URLs as the lingua franca of web APIs. Stateless, cacheable, and layered — REST's uniform interface constraint enables universal interoperability across the networked world.
GraphQL Schema & Query
GraphQL replaces multiple REST endpoints with a single typed schema. Clients declare exactly the data shape they need — over-fetching and under-fetching disappear. Resolvers connect schema fields to data sources with fine-grained control.
gRPC Protocol Buffers
gRPC uses HTTP/2 multiplexing and Protocol Buffer binary serialization for high-performance service-to-service communication — 5-10x smaller payloads and 10x faster serialization than JSON REST at the cost of human readability.
OpenAPI Contract Architecture
OpenAPI 3.1 defines a machine-readable API contract — endpoints, schemas, security, examples — enabling auto-generated clients, server stubs, documentation, and mock servers. The API contract is the source of truth for the entire integration surface.
API Gateway Architecture
The API gateway is the unified entry point for all client traffic — handling authentication, rate limiting, routing, load balancing, observability, and protocol translation across a heterogeneous backend microservice landscape.
API Latency Distribution
P50/P95/P99 latency percentiles, error rate histograms, and distributed traces across the API call graph provide the observability layer for understanding real-world API performance and identifying degradation before users notice.
API Design Pioneers
The architects, researchers, and practitioners who shaped the APIs that run the modern web.
API Design Lexicon
Core vocabulary for API design, protocol selection, and interface architecture.