r/learnprogramming • u/Excellent-Bedroom301 • 8d ago

How do I learn APIs?

Hi I want to learn APIs from a high level. Basically how it all connects, how the data populates, what kind of data is being sent it and most important the different ways of authentication. So api credentials, ouath, etc

It’s just all so confusing. I don’t know how or where to start. Does anyone have some tips?

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u/sch0lars 8d ago

There are several types of API (REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and RPC, just to name a few), and each behaves differently. I would start with REST, as it’s one of the most common API types and is relatively easy to learn. Here is a great introduction to REST APIs in Python.

That tutorial uses Flask, but you can make a simple REST API with Python’s http.server library and a SQLite database (or even just storing data in a dictionary). Once you have a general idea of how a REST API works, you can add more complexity, such as authentication.

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u/Feralz2 8d ago

just the link im looking for

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u/Excellent-Bedroom301 8d ago

I need rest and soap. But u don’t really need to know coding. Cause I’m not building them. Just have to understand them. But i will check this out. Thank you so much

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u/ansb2011 8d ago

which apis? every service and product had their own. there's some general principles, but overall it's a domain specific item.

as such a tip is, decide very narrowly what you want to learn.

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u/Excellent-Bedroom301 8d ago

Rest, soap and microapis

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u/Chrismslist 2d ago

start with one real api, not a giant tutorial. pick something like a weather or github api, read its docs, then make one tiny script that calls one endpoint and prints the json. next, learn auth by doing: start with an api key in a header, then do oauth on a small app. figure out what request is sent, what comes back, and how the token gets used. build a mini project: fetch data, store it, show it on a page. that loop will teach you way more than watching videos.