API Design

To design consistent REST APIs, define clear URL structures, standard response formats, and robust error handling. Implement stable versioning strategies to ensure external developers and mobile clients can reliably consume your services without integration friction.

Choose GraphQL, gRPC, or WebSockets over REST when your architecture demands specific communication patterns. Select GraphQL for flexible data queries, gRPC for high-performance internal microservices, and WebSockets for real-time features, applying REST for standard resource-based interfaces.

The best way to document API surfaces is generating comprehensive OpenAPI specifications alongside your REST endpoints. Applying a structured quality rubric helps avoid common anti-patterns, ensuring your interface remains scalable, consistent, and easy for consumers to integrate.

Pagination and authentication are core requirements for robust API design. Implement standardized pagination to manage large datasets efficiently and enforce secure authentication protocols to protect internal services and external developers consuming your endpoints.

Yes, you can standardize error handling across microservices by applying a consistent API design rubric. Defining uniform response formats and error handling rules reduces maintenance costs and ensures all clients receive predictable failure states across the architecture.