Design dependable interfaces
Go from HTTP fundamentals to secure API design, implementation, documentation, testing, reliability, and a catalog of real APIs.
The learning path
Do not treat the resource links as a reading list. Learn enough to produce the outcome, then move forward.
Milestone 1
Understand requests, responses, methods, status codes, headers, caching, cookies, and the constraints behind REST.
CheckpointInspect and explain a complete HTTP exchange, including cache and error behavior.
Milestone 2
Model resources, choose consistent URLs, define schemas, errors, pagination, versioning, and idempotency before writing handlers.
CheckpointWrite and review an OpenAPI contract for a real product domain.
Milestone 3
Build typed handlers, validate inputs, model relational data, control transactions, and return predictable results.
CheckpointImplement a documented CRUD API backed by PostgreSQL with clean migrations.
Milestone 4
Protect identity and data with threat modeling, robust authentication, scoped authorization, secret handling, and safe defaults.
CheckpointAdd scoped access tokens and a documented authorization model to your API.
Milestone 5
Make the first successful request easy with contract tests, examples, collections, changelogs, and useful error messages.
CheckpointPublish interactive docs and an automated API regression suite.
Milestone 6
Operate APIs with rate limits, queues, observability, service-level objectives, and thoughtful third-party integrations.
CheckpointOperate an API against an SLO and integrate two external providers safely.
API field guide
Use these production APIs to practice authentication, pagination, webhooks, rate limits, retries, and useful error handling.
Repositories, issues, pull requests, actions, and code search.
WeatherOpenWeather API↗Current conditions, forecasts, history, and weather maps.
Financial dataAlpha Vantage↗Stocks, options, foreign exchange, commodities, and indicators.
Maps & locationMapbox APIs↗Maps, geocoding, navigation, search, and spatial data.
PaymentsStripe API↗Payments, subscriptions, invoicing, and financial workflows.
CommunicationTwilio Messaging↗Programmable SMS, messaging, verification, and conversations.
AI modelsHugging Face Hub API↗Models, datasets, spaces, inference, and community artifacts.
LanguageGoogle Cloud Translation↗Language detection and neural machine translation.
Capstone project
Ship a versioned public API with an OpenAPI contract, authentication, rate limiting, tests, SDK example, and uptime dashboard.