An API is a contract. Break it, and you break every client that depends on it. Design it poorly, and you accumulate technical debt that compounds with every new integration. Great API design is one of the highest-leverage engineering decisions a team makes.
REST vs GraphQL: Choosing the Right Tool
REST and GraphQL are not competitors. They solve different problems. REST excels at resource-oriented APIs with predictable access patterns. GraphQL shines when clients have varied data requirements and fetching efficiency is critical.
For most enterprise APIs, we recommend a REST-first approach with GraphQL introduced at the aggregation layer for frontend clients. This gives you the simplicity and cacheability of REST with the flexibility of GraphQL where it matters.
Versioning Strategy
Never break a published API. Use URL versioning (/v1/, /v2/) for major breaking changes, and additive changes within a version. Maintain at least two major versions simultaneously to give clients time to migrate.
Automated compatibility checks in your CI pipeline can catch breaking changes before they reach production. Tools like OpenAPI diff can compare schemas and flag any field removals or type changes.
Performance at Scale
For APIs handling millions of daily requests, response time optimisation is not optional. Cache aggressively at the CDN layer for public endpoints. Use database connection pooling. Paginate all list endpoints. Profile every new endpoint under realistic load before it goes to production.
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