Welcome

Thank you for purchasing The Design of Web APIs, Second Edition.

Web APIs are everywhere; we use them all the time, often without even realizing it. Whether sharing a photo on social media or hailing a ride through an app, web APIs are crucial in making it happen. For developers, APIs are essential as most modern systems rely on multiple software components communicating with each other. We need them to build simple web applications to complex distributed systems. APIs are also products in their own right, as exemplified by Stripe or Twilio. Even government agencies rely on APIs to power their digital services.

The design quality is crucial for web APIs, whether seen as technical interfaces or products, used by a single application or multiple, or created for internal use or third-party. Poorly designed public or private APIs can harm developers' productivity, system performance and integrity, end-users experience, and organization’s revenue.