Introduction to API Design Patterns

Modern APIs are essential for interoperability between systems. A good design improves scalability, security, and the developer experience.

Advantages of gRPC over REST

Performance (Binary over Text)
- gRPC uses Protocol Buffers (Protobuf), a compact binary format, whereas REST usually uses JSON (text-based, verbose).
- Faster serialization/deserialization and smaller payloads → lower latency and bandwidth usage.
Streaming Support
- gRPC natively supports:
  - Unary RPC (request/response like REST)
  - Server streaming
  - Client streaming
  - Bidirectional streaming
- This is very useful for real-time communication (e.g., chat, IoT telemetry, video streaming, stock price updates).
Strongly Typed Contracts
- The service definition is in a .proto file.
- Ensures type safety and backward compatibility (if you evolve the API carefully).
- Auto-generates client and server code in multiple languages.
Code Generation
- gRPC provides stubs and strongly typed clients automatically, saving development effort.
- Avoids manual boilerplate code like building JSON parsing/HTTP clients.
Multiplexing over HTTP/2
- Built on HTTP/2, allowing multiple requests on a single connection, with lower overhead compared to multiple HTTP/1.1 connections.
- Includes features like header compression.
Built-in Deadlines & Cancellation
- Clients can set deadlines/timeouts easily.
- Allows better control over long-running requests and resource cleanup.
Ecosystem for Microservices
- gRPC is designed for service-to-service communication, especially in microservice architectures.
- Plays well with service meshes (Istio, Linkerd).

✅ When to use gRPC

High-performance microservices talking to each other.
Real-time streaming communication (chat, telemetry, gaming, video).
Internal APIs where you control both ends and can enforce gRPC usage.
When type safety and auto-generated SDKs are important.

✅ When REST may be better

Public-facing APIs (developer adoption, simplicity).
When human readability/debuggability matters.
When leveraging HTTP ecosystem features (caching, proxies, CDNs).
For lightweight CRUD-style operations.

2. Security First

Recommendations:

Authentication with OAuth2 or JWT
Encryption with HTTPS
Apply rate limits per IP or token

3. Versioning

Avoid breaking compatibility. Use routes like:

/api/v1/users /api/v2/users

You can also version via headers if you prefer to keep a single route.

📸 Example image

4. Documentation

A good API should be well-documented. Recommended tools

Conclusion

Designing an API is not just a technical matter — it's also about considering those who will use it. A clear, secure, and well-documented design is key to the success of any modern product.

API Design Patterns for Modern Applications