API Design
Difficulty: Easy | Topic #1
What to Learn
REST principles, HTTP verbs (GET/POST/PUT/DELETE), idempotency, pagination strategies (cursor-based, offset), authentication (JWT, API keys), versioning.
Resources
- Hello Interview: API Design ↗
- ByteByteGo: Good APIs Vs Bad APIs — 7 Tips for API Design ↗
- Arpit Bhayani: Everything you need to know about REST ↗
Covered by Problems
| Problem | Difficulty | Link |
|---|---|---|
| URL Shortener/Bitly | Easy | → |
| File Storage/Dropbox | Easy | → |
| Yelp | Easy | → |
| Rate Limiter | Medium | → |
| YouTube | Medium | → |
Key Concepts to Master
- REST vs gRPC tradeoffs
- Idempotency and why it matters for retries
- Cursor-based vs offset pagination for large datasets
- JWT token anatomy and expiry
- API versioning strategies (URL path vs header)