API Design 101: The Ultimate Guide to Building APIs That Don't Suck

API Design 101: The Ultimate Guide to Building APIs That Don't Suck You've used APIs. You've probably built a few. And if you're being honest, at least one of them was held together with duct tape and prayers. Bad APIs are everywhere. Inconsistent naming, mystery status codes, error messages that say "something went wrong" with zero context, pagination that breaks when you look at it funny. We've all been there. This guide is the antidote. We're going to cover everything about designing APIs that developers actually enjoy using — from URL structure to authentication, rate limiting to webhooks, error handling to documentation. With real code, real patterns, and real opinions. Let's build APIs that don't suck. Table of Contents What Makes a Great API? URL and Resource Design HTTP Methods Done Right Status Codes — The Full Picture Request/Response Design Error Handling Patterns Authentication in APIs Versioning Strategies Rate Limiting Input Validation Filtering, Sorting, and Pagination B