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✅ Master Level
API Contracts
Complete Beginner → Advanced Syllabus (Pin-to-Pin)
🟢 LEVEL 1 — Foundations
1. Introduction to API Contracts
- What is an API contract
- Purpose: formalize communication
- Frontend-Backend agreement
- Service-to-service contracts
- Contract-driven development
2. Contract Types
- REST API contracts
- GraphQL schemas
- gRPC protobuf definitions
- Message queue contracts
🟢 LEVEL 2 — REST API Contracts
3. Endpoint Definition
- HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH)
- URL structure & paths
- Path parameters
- Query parameters
- Request headers
4. Request & Response Bodies
- JSON schema definition
- Request payload structure
- Response payload structure
- Field types & validation
- Required vs optional fields
🟡 LEVEL 3 — HTTP Status Codes & Errors
5. Success Responses
- 200 OK
- 201 Created
- 202 Accepted
- 204 No Content
- Pagination structure
6. Error Responses
- 4xx client errors
- 5xx server errors
- Error response format
- Error codes standardization
- Error message clarity
🟡 LEVEL 4 — API Documentation
7. OpenAPI/Swagger
- OpenAPI specification
- Endpoint documentation
- Schema definitions
- Example requests/responses
8. Documentation Quality
- Clear descriptions
- Code examples
- Authentication requirements
- Rate limiting documentation
🟠 LEVEL 5 — Versioning & Evolution
9. API Versioning Strategies
- URL path versioning (/v1/, /v2/)
- Header versioning
- Query parameter versioning
- Semantic versioning
10. Breaking Changes
- Identifying breaking changes
- Deprecation strategy
- Migration path for clients
- Backward compatibility
🟠 LEVEL 6 — Contract Testing
11. Contract Testing
- Consumer test contracts
- Provider test contracts
- Contract test frameworks (Pact)
- Mocking & stubbing
12. Validation
- Schema validation
- Response validation
- Automated contract tests
🔵 LEVEL 7 — Advanced Features
13. Authentication & Authorization
- API key authentication
- OAuth 2.0 tokens
- JWT tokens
- Scope definition
- Authorization headers
14. Rate Limiting & Pagination
- Rate limit headers
- Offset-based pagination
- Cursor-based pagination
- Batch operations
🔴 LEVEL 8 — Performance & Optimization
15. Caching Headers
- Cache-Control headers
- ETag support
- Last-Modified headers
- Client-side caching strategy
16. Response Optimization
- Compression (gzip)
- Partial responses (field selection)
- Batch endpoints
- Response size optimization
🔴 LEVEL 9 — Contract as Code
17. Contract-First Development
- Define contract before implementation
- Frontend and backend parallel work
- Mock servers from contracts
- Automatic code generation
18. Contract Governance
- Contract registry
- Change approval process
- Documentation automation
- Compliance & audit trail
⭐ Senior Frontend Focus (Must Master)
- Frontend-Backend contract negotiation
- Error handling contract design
- Loading & pagination contracts
- Optimistic update contracts
- Real-time data contracts (WebSocket/SSE)
- Field selection for frontend efficiency
- Cache headers for frontend optimization