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✅ Master Level
API Design
Complete Beginner → Advanced Syllabus (Pin-to-Pin)
🟢 LEVEL 1 — API Fundamentals
1. What is an API
- Definition & purpose
- API contracts
- Producer & consumer roles
- API evolution
2. RESTful Principles
- Resource-oriented design
- HTTP methods
- Status codes
- Stateless communication
🟢 LEVEL 2 — Endpoint Design
3. URL Structure
- Resource paths
- Naming conventions
- Hierarchy representation
- Query parameters
4. HTTP Methods
- GET (safe, idempotent)
- POST (create resources)
- PUT (full updates)
- PATCH (partial updates)
- DELETE (resource removal)
🟡 LEVEL 3 — Response Design
5. Response Format
- JSON structure conventions
- Pagination patterns
- Error responses
- Metadata inclusion
6. Status Codes
- 2xx success codes
- 3xx redirect codes
- 4xx client error codes
- 5xx server error codes
🟡 LEVEL 4 — API Versioning
7. Versioning Strategies
- URL versioning
- Header versioning
- Query parameter versioning
- Pros & cons of each
8. Backward Compatibility
- Deprecation policy
- Migration path support
- Version sunset timeline
- Breaking change communication
🟠 LEVEL 5 — Idempotency
9. Idempotent Requests
- Definition & importance
- Idempotency keys
- Server-side deduplication
- Retry safety
10. Implementation Patterns
- POST idempotency
- Idempotency ID headers
- Request deduplication stores
- Timeout management
🟠 LEVEL 6 — Rate Limiting
11. Rate Limiting Fundamentals
- Throttling strategies
- Per-user limits
- Per-IP limits
- Per-API-key limits
12. Rate Limit Headers
- X-RateLimit-Limit
- X-RateLimit-Remaining
- X-RateLimit-Reset
- 429 Too Many Requests response
🔵 LEVEL 7 — Authentication & Security
13. API Authentication
- API keys
- Bearer tokens
- OAuth 2.0
- JWT tokens
14. Authorization
- Scope management
- Permission rules
- Role-based access control
- Resource-level permissions
🔵 LEVEL 8 — API Documentation
15. Documentation Standards
- OpenAPI specification
- Swagger documentation
- Example requests/responses
- Error documentation
16. Developer Experience
- API explorer tools
- SDK generation
- Changelog management
- Community support
🔴 LEVEL 9 — Advanced Patterns
17. Batch Operations
- Batch request design
- Partial failure handling
- Transaction semantics
- Performance implications
18. API Governance
- API review process
- Style guides enforcement
- Deprecation govenance
- Monitoring & analytics
⭐ Senior Frontend Focus (Must Master)
- Understanding API contracts from frontend perspective
- Pagination & filtering requirements
- Rate limiting impact on frontend
- Error response handling design
- Idempotency for form submissions
- API versioning strategy planning
- Communicating frontend needs to API designers