Backend Fundamentals
APIs are the contracts between services. This course covers three interface styles every backend engineer encounters: REST, WebHooks, and RPC. Estimated time: ~45 minutes.
What you'll learn
REST
- Structuring responses with JSONAPI and sparse field sets
- Pagination strategies: offset/limit vs. cursor-based
- Modeling relationships between resources
- When REST is the right choice and when GraphQL makes more sense
WebHooks
- What WebHooks are and when to reach for them over polling
- Securing WebHook endpoints with authentication
RPC
- The RPC mental model and how it differs from REST
- gRPC: the protocol, tooling, and typical use cases
- Protobuf: defining and versioning schemas
Prerequisites
Basic JavaScript or TypeScript knowledge. Completing the Docker course first is recommended but not required.
Estimated time
~45 minutes