Designing RESTful APIs

Approx. 3 weeks

Assumes 6hrs/wk (work at your own pace)

API (Application Programming Interface) endpoints are the connections between your application and the rest of the developer community. In this course you will learn about writing secure, developer-friendly APIs that will make your back-end application thrive and keep your users happy.

At the end of this course you will create the back-end for a social application called "Meet n' Eat" that matches together users based on their location and food interests.

A crucial skill for a back-end or full-stack web developer is the ability to make applications that are easily accessible and understood for other developers . Mobile developers, front-end developers and other back-end and full-stack developers all rely on API endpoints to enhance the functionality of their applications.

This course assumes you have experience working with the Flask web development framework, SQLAlchemy, and understand the basics of OAuth 2.0. Python will be the primary language of instruction for the entirety of this course.

Recommended Courses:
Full Stacks Foundations
Authentication & Authorization: OAuth

See the Technology Requirements for using Udacity.

Lesson 1 - What's and Why's of APIs

In Lesson one of this course you will learn about the basics of APIs, why they are important, and how to choose the appropriate technologies for implementing a modern web API.

Lesson 2 - Accessing Published APIs

In lesson 2, you will explore published APIs from Foursquare and Google Maps to see how these companies implement their API endpoints and leverage some of this information for our own use.

Lesson 3 - Creating your own API Endpoints

In lesson 3 you will use Flask to build your own web server with API endpoints that follow the constraints to qualify as a RESTful API.

Lesson 4 - Securing your API

In lesson 4, you will learn about API security and add OAuth login, token-based authentication, and rate limiting to your API endpoints.

Lesson 5 - Writing Developer-Friendly APIs

In Lesson 5 you will learn some API best practices using real-world examples and take on the final project.