Understanding APIs and RESTful APIs

In this course you will learn about APIs and RESTful APIs, and how they work. There is no coding in this course.

By the end of this course you will completely understand how APIs work, and how computers talk to each other. You'll also be familiar with RESTful APIs which make use of the HTTP protocol. If that sounded confusing, scary, or overly technical — it's not — it's just a fancy way of saying "it uses the internet".

The goal of this course is to help you understand APIs and RESTful APIs without needing to write any code. So next time someone says "API" you will know exactly what they are talking about (and you'll also know it's not really that technical or fancy, but that'll be our secret ;)

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This course is designed to remove the sense of overwhelm and "scariness" when we start to talk about APIs. APIs and RESTful APIs come across as difficult or advanced subjects, but really it's just two computers talking to each other and exchanging commands and data. No different than when your friend sends you a text message, and you text back.

I'll give you several easy to remember metaphors so APIs don't feel scary or overwhelming, too.

APIs can be written and used by most programming languages, so we're not writing any code, although I do provide a live JavaScript demo.

All the slides will be provided for you, as well as reference material for when you've graduated this course and you're ready to take on the world of APIs.

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This course is only 45 minutes, but I promise you that's all the time you'll need — not because I'm a good teacher, but because APIs are seriously that simple once someone takes the time to explain them.