How to Design APIs Like a Senior Engineer (REST, GraphQL, Auth, Security)

About this Video

• Video Title: How to Design APIs Like a Senior Engineer (REST, GraphQL, Auth, Security)
• Channel: Hayk Simonyan
• Speakers: Hayk Simonyan
• Duration: 01:23:21

Introduction

This video tutorial teaches API design skills, progressing from junior to senior-level expertise. It covers API fundamentals, protocols (REST, GraphQL, gRPC), transport layers (TCP/UDP), authentication, authorization, and security best practices. The goal is to equip developers with the knowledge to command senior-level salaries.

Key Takeaways

• API Design Fundamentals: APIs define how software components interact, abstracting implementation details and setting service boundaries.
• API Styles: REST (resource-based, HTTP methods), GraphQL (query language, single endpoint), and gRPC (high-performance RPC, protocol buffers) are compared and contrasted. Choosing the right style depends on project needs (complexity, real-time requirements, microservices architecture).
• API Design Principles: APIs should be consistent (naming, casing), simple (intuitive, minimal complexity), secure (authentication, authorization, input validation, rate limiting), and performant (caching, pagination, minimized payloads, reduced round trips).
• API Protocols: HTTP(S) (request-response), WebSockets (real-time, bidirectional), AMQP (asynchronous messaging), and gRPC (high-performance, HTTP/2) are discussed, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in various contexts.
• API Design Process: The process includes understanding requirements, scoping, defining performance and security constraints, choosing a design approach (top-down, bottom-up, contract-first), development, deployment, monitoring, maintenance, and eventual deprecation/retirement.
• Authentication Methods: Basic authentication (username/password), bearer tokens, OAuth 2 with JWTs, access/refresh tokens, and single sign-on (SSO) are explained, emphasizing security considerations.
• Authorization Models: Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), and Access Control Lists (ACLs) are detailed with examples.
• API Security: Rate limiting, CORS, preventing SQL injection, using firewalls, VPNs, CSRF protection, and XSS prevention are presented as key security measures.