APIs and Middleware: Designing Interfaces for Modern Systems
APIs and Middleware: Designing Interfaces for Modern Systems APIs act as the contract between services. Middleware sits between clients and internal systems, shaping requests, handling security, and routing data. A well-designed interface is easy to learn, stable over time, and friendly to future changes. This balance helps teams move faster and reduces friction when systems evolve. What makes a good API interface? Clear contracts: define what endpoints exist, required inputs, and expected outputs. Stable versioning: communicate changes gently, avoid breaking clients. Consistent error formats: predictable messages help clients recover quickly. Observability by default: trace requests, collect metrics, and surface failures. Choosing the right protocol is a key decision. REST is simple and widely supported; GraphQL can reduce over-fetching; gRPC shines with performance for internal services. Each choice affects how you design data shapes and error handling. Start with a concrete use case, then pick the protocol that fits. ...