What is an API?
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#126 What is an API?

Tim

An API can also just be on a code level, it doesn't have to be tied to the internet or any network. Like what the kernel uses (system calls, basically the API for the kernel).

Most APIs like I talk about in the comic, doing requests over the internet etc, are REST APIs. Fancy name, but it's just a standardized way of communicating between separate pieces of software over a network. Most frequently it'll use JSON to encode the data, so that it's machine readable.


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