grpc-concepts

gRPC uses Protocol Buffers and HTTP/2 for transport, enabling strongly typed contracts and efficient binary serialization, whereas REST typically uses JSON over HTTP/1.1. gRPC is designed for high-performance microservices communication and real-time data streaming.

gRPC supports unary for simple request-response, server streaming for real-time data feeds, client streaming for uploading data, and bidirectional streaming for simultaneous two-way communication. Choose your RPC type based on whether your microservices need asynchronous or continuous data exchange.

Protocol Buffers serialize structured data into a compact binary format for gRPC. You define service definitions and message types in proto files, which generate strongly typed code for client and server communication, ensuring efficient data serialization across microservices.

gRPC error handling uses standard status codes and rich error details to communicate failures between microservices. You manage errors gracefully by returning structured status objects from the server, allowing clients to programmatically inspect and resolve specific failure conditions.

Best practices for proto design include careful field numbering, backward-compatible versioning, and avoiding frequent breaking changes. Performance optimization in gRPC involves leveraging HTTP/2 multiplexing and selecting the appropriate streaming type to reduce network latency.

You should avoid gRPC when building APIs for browser clients lacking direct HTTP/2 support, or when human-readable JSON payloads are strictly required. gRPC is best suited for internal microservices communication and mobile-backend integration rather than public REST endpoints.