A practical, beginner-friendly guide to APIs. Learn how APIs work, types of APIs, authentication, rate limits, and what to learn next.
In today’s modern day, you have seen many applications and digital services and use many of them in your day to day life like the weather apps that you use to check your local weather or score board of your favorite teams recent match, including various other activities. This may include the online shopping website you use to buy your groceries or that service that you use for your work that has AI integrations like ChatGPT or Gemini or some other AI services. Have you ever wondered how these websites and services manage to move data around the internet, from their servers to your device that you are using?
The answer to this question is that they all use “APIs” within to co-ordinate and communicate with the servers and other data providers like “OpenWeather” for weather related data, etc.
What is an API?
An API stands for “Application Programming Interface”, and is a contract that allows different services or different distinct systems to communicate to each other. For developers, this is not just “communication”, it is the very structure of requests & response cycle that allows developers to maintain coordination between two distinct systems.
What is the Request-Response Cycle?
The Request-Response Cycle is the very communication cycle that allows the systems to talk to each other. I will give you an example of this cycle. The first step involves the “CLIENT” — the device or the system that is asking for the data. It will put out a call to the “SERVER” through the internet. As soon as the “SERVER” receives the request, the request will be analysed and processed, within the server and then the server in question will send out a reply to the call made by the client. This entire interaction is called a “REQUEST-RESPONSE” cycle.
To explain this better I am giving you an example of a government office . Imagine you are applying for a drivers license. To get your license, you need to convey your information with the request for applying for a new drivers license. You will need to fill-up forms and then submit them to the designated office that handles the task. Now your form and information about you will be processed and then you will get the reply if your application has been approved or not. If approved you will get the license and if not , a letter of rejection. In the given example, you are the “CLIENT” and the government office is the “SERVER”. The forms play the role of APIs in the given example.
Types of an API
You may have a question, based on the example, there are various types of forms, related to the drivers license, does the API have it too? And the answer is yes, there are different kinds of APIs present and not all are made the same way or even used the same way. While the core concept of an APIs remains the same, the usage of different types of APIs differ based on the requirements of the specific task. This is based on the design philosophy, who are allowed to access the APIs and what will be the task the API will be performing. As a developer, you will encounter this kind of situation where you have to decide what design structure to use and how you want the flow to be implemented.
Understanding these kinds of concepts at a high level will help you make informed decisions about which approach to utilize for API designs.
REST APIs (Representational State Transfer)
The REST APIs are the most utilized kind of APIs on the internet today. This type of API relies on standard HTTP methods such as “GET”, “POST”, “PUT” & “DELETE” for performing their tasks. The information is usually exchanged in JSON-format, which makes the REST APIs incredibly lightweight and comparatively easier to work on. They are usually used for form submissions, or fetching simple information from the web or the servers.
Modern applications like websites, mobile applications, etc, whether it's a weather app or your favorite team scoreboard, uses REST APIs behind the surface to manage their operations.
GraphQL APIs
GraphQL APIs are a bit different from REST. REST is easy and flexible, but GraphQL lets the client really boss the server around. It means you only get exactly the data you ask for, which cuts out all the unnecessary extra info you sometimes get with REST.
It's like asking a REST API for the weather—you might get temperature, location, humidity, the whole nine yards. With GraphQL, you have to be specific: ask for just the temperature, and that's all you'll get. Nothing more, nothing less\!
SOAP APIs
SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. This type of APIs are like that religious relative who is older, rigid in ways and thinks their way is always the right way. This APIs protocol is essentially the same. It is older, rigid, relies heavily on XML for data exchange and has very strict standards. It has built-in error handling and security features for detecting any violations, totally like someone we all can relate to. SOAP, or Simple Object Access Protocol, is the traditionalist of the API world. Imagine that very formal, perhaps slightly older, relative who insists on strict etiquette and always writes official letters using fancy, detailed stationery (XML). They're inflexible and everything has to be done "by the book," following their rigid set of rules. The good news is they are incredibly reliable, especially when it comes to security and making sure their message gets across perfectly (error handling). The downside? All that formality makes them a bit slow and complicated compared to the younger, more casual APIs.
Public APIs vs Internal APIs
By reading about the different types of APIs, you may have another question, like what about internal communication between different systems, not all services openly publicize their APIs or are accessible to everyone. This is where you come into the other kind of APIs based on where you use it. They are known as “PUBLIC” & “INTERNAL” APIs.
Public APIs
PUBLIC APIs are the APIs that are exposed to external developers and services. These are the types of the APIs that you will see, when you search data APIs or any other APIs that you can use for your own projects.
Examples of the Public API are:
CLOUDINARY API: An assets storage and management API.
Google API: An API for google related assets.
OpenWeather API: An API for fetching weather data.
and many more…
Internal APIs
INTERNAL APIs are the APIs that are private, used for internal management within an organization. These are different from PUBLIC APIs as these are solely for internal communication and not exposed to the outside world. You may have across these APIs in your offices and similar places, how office workers transfer files, etc. They are used to improve communication between different teams, improve scalability and maintain functionalities without being exposed to the public.
At this point, it’s natural to think how complex APIs are, and you will be right in your thoughts about it as there are various items to consider when making APIs but worry not, it's not as hard as it might seem to be. Once you get to know how it works, it's a fairly straightforward task, and a mundane one at that.
How Do APIs Work? (An Overview)
At a basic level, APIs work using a simple back-and-forth conversation between two sides: a client and a server.
The client is the application asking for something. This could be a website, a mobile app, or even another server. The server is the system that owns the data or service being requested.
Here’s how it usually plays out:
The client sends a request
The request says what the client wants—maybe some data, maybe an action like submitting a form.
The server processes the request
The server checks the request, figures out what needs to be done, and prepares a response.
The server sends a response back
The response contains either the requested data or information about what went wrong.
The client uses the response
The client application then turns that response into something useful, like showing data on the screen or triggering another action.
This request–response flow happens constantly in the background—when you refresh a page, log into an app, or check the weather.
Making API Requests in Real Applications
At this point, a natural question comes up:
“How does a program actually send these requests?”
The short answer is: it depends on the programming language you’re using.
Most languages provide built-in tools or popular libraries that make API calls easier. Whether you’re working with Python, JavaScript, or something else, there are well-established ways to send requests and handle responses without reinventing the wheel.
The details change from language to language, but the underlying idea stays the same.
Things APIs Care About (More Than Just Data)
Real-world APIs don’t just accept requests blindly. They need to make sure communication stays secure, fair, and reliable. Two important concepts help with that: authentication and rate limiting.
Authentication (Proving Who You Are)
Authentication is how an API verifies that a request is from a legitimate user or application.
An easy way to think about this is a VIP club. The server is the club, and it doesn’t let just anyone walk in. You need proof that you’re allowed inside.
APIs usually handle this in a few common ways:
API Keys
These are simple unique identifiers sent with a request. They tell the server, “This request is coming from this specific user or application.”
OAuth
OAuth works like a digital passport. It allows applications to access certain data on your behalf without exposing your actual credentials.
If you’ve ever used a “Sign in with Google” button, you’ve already used OAuth.
Authentication isn’t just about security—it also helps services track usage and manage access properly.
Rate Limiting (Not Overloading the Server)
Rate limiting is how an API controls how often it can be used within a certain time period.
Think of it like this: if one user keeps sending requests nonstop, they could slow things down for everyone else. Rate limits exist to prevent that.
When a limit is exceeded, the server responds with an error instead of processing more requests. One common example is the 429 – Too Many Requests error.
Rate limiting helps keep APIs stable, predictable, and cost-efficient—especially at scale.
Error Codes (How APIs Communicate Problems)
APIs don’t just send data—they also send status codes that describe what happened.
Some codes tell you everything went fine. Others tell you something went wrong, like requesting too much data too quickly or sending an invalid request.
These codes give developers a standardized way to understand results without guessing. While there are many of them, the key idea is simple:
status codes explain the outcome of a request.
We’ll explore these in more detail in dedicated guides later.
Summary
By now, you’ve seen how APIs fit into modern software development—from the basic request–response cycle to the different types of APIs like REST, GraphQL, and SOAP.
You’ve also been introduced to important real-world considerations such as authentication, rate limiting, and error handling—things that separate a simple demo from a production-ready system.
Understanding APIs isn’t just about memorizing terms or preparing for interviews. It’s about building a solid foundation for creating applications that communicate smoothly, scale reliably, and work well in the real world.
From here, you can dive deeper into specific topics like how APIs work step by step, how authentication is implemented, or how to use APIs in your favorite programming language.
What to Learn Next
If this guide was helpful to your understanding about what APIs are and how they are integrated into the modern digital infrastructure, the next step is to go deeper—one concept at a time.
APIs can feel overwhelming at first, but they are much easier to work with when you study them one piece at a time. Here’s a natural learning path you can follow with next:
Understanding How APIs Work in Detail
Goes beyond this high level overview and explores how the requests are actually built, sent and processed. This includes understanding HTTP methods, headers, request bodies and responses.
The part where APIs stops being “theory” and begins to make real sense.
Learn REST APIs Properly
REST is the most commonly used API style on the web. Learning how REST APIs are designed, structured, and used will give you a strong foundation that applies to most real-world projects.
Once you understand REST, many other API concepts start to feel familiar.
Dive Into API Authentication
Authentication often presents the initial significant challenge for developers integrating with APIs.
Mastering API keys, tokens, and OAuth is crucial for:
Gaining access to protected APIs.
Developing secure applications.
Preventing typical novice errors.
Learn About APIs Error Handling
APIs don't just return data; they often return errors.
To build reliable applications that handle failures gracefully (instead of requiring guesswork), you need to understand status codes and error responses. This knowledge will enable you to debug much faster.