In this module9 lessons
APIs and integrations
Explain what an API is to anyone, read a simple request and response, and name the product decisions an API or integration forces.
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What an API is
An API (application programming interface) is an agreed way for one piece of software to ask another for something. It defines what you can ask for, how to phrase the request, and what you will get back. Everything behind it stays hidden.
A useful picture is a drive-through window. There is a fixed menu. You order in a set way: item, size, extras. You do not walk into the kitchen or care how the fryer works. You get your order, or a clear answer like "we're out of that". The restaurant can rebuild its whole kitchen, and as long as the window and the menu stay the same, customers never notice.
Like every analogy, this one has limits. Software APIs are usually called by other programs, not people, and they are called thousands or millions of times a day. But the core idea holds: an API is a contract that lets two systems work together without knowing each other's insides.
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