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API Design

Learn how web APIs work from the network up, then design one properly. You will pick methods and status codes, shape resources and URLs, handle paging, retries and errors, and secure it all with sessions, tokens and OAuth — on one small library API.

Ready to learn6 sections · 24 lessons
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Course curriculum

Learn the Basics5 lessons

Meet APIs as published promises, follow a request through DNS and TCP/IP, read raw HTTP messages, place details in the path or query, and let client and server agree on formats.

  1. What an API Is10 min
  2. TCP/IP and DNS — Reaching the Server12 min
  3. HTTP — One Request, One Response12 min
  4. URLs, Path and Query Parameters12 min
  5. Content Negotiation14 min
HTTP in Depth5 lessons

Choose methods by their meaning, answer with the right status code, carry metadata in headers and cookies, cache responses safely, and let browsers call your API across origins.

  1. HTTP Methods12 min
  2. HTTP Status Codes14 min
  3. Headers and Cookies12 min
  4. HTTP Caching14 min
  5. CORS — Cross-Origin Requests15 min
API Styles3 lessons

See what makes an API truly RESTful, let clients choose their fields with GraphQL, and compare the contract-first RPC styles SOAP and gRPC.

  1. REST and JSON APIs14 min
  2. GraphQL APIs14 min
  3. SOAP and gRPC — Contract-First Calls14 min
Designing RESTful APIs4 lessons

Choose the nouns your API is about, name them so developers can guess the URLs, change the API without breaking callers, and map create, read, update and delete onto HTTP.

  1. Resource Modeling14 min
  2. URI Design and Naming12 min
  3. Versioning Strategies14 min
  4. CRUD Operations14 min
Robust Endpoints3 lessons

Slice big collections with filters, sorting and pagination, make retries harmless with idempotency, and return errors in one clear, standard shape.

  1. Pagination, Filtering and Sorting15 min
  2. Idempotency14 min
  3. Error Handling and Problem Details15 min
Authentication Methods4 lessons

Compare Basic auth, server-side sessions and tokens, check JWTs in the right order, and let other apps act for a user with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect.

  1. Basic Auth12 min
  2. Session-Based Auth12 min
  3. Token-Based Auth and JWT15 min
  4. OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect16 min