API Design Best Practices: Building Robust REST and GraphQL APIs

Well-designed APIs are crucial for modern applications. Learn REST and GraphQL best practices for scalable, maintainable API development.

REST API Principles

Representational State Transfer (REST) provides a standardized approach to API design.

REST Best Practices

• Resource-Based URLs: Intuitive endpoint naming
• HTTP Methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE appropriately
• Status Codes: Proper HTTP response codes
• Versioning: API evolution without breaking changes

GraphQL Advantages

GraphQL allows clients to request exactly the data they need, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching.

GraphQL Features

• Single Endpoint: Flexible queries instead of multiple endpoints
• Strong Typing: Schema definition with type safety
• Introspection: Self-documenting APIs

Security Considerations

Implement authentication, rate limiting, and input validation for secure APIs.

Documentation

Use OpenAPI/Swagger for REST and GraphQL schema for comprehensive API documentation.