What are APIs?

An application programming interface (API) allows one application to talk to another to transfer data or instructions. APIs are everywhere in our daily lives, from the embedded YouTube videos on social media applications to the smart speaker on the kitchen counter. They allow different software to interact and increase functionality and productivity.

How does an API work?

APIs are often visualized as waiters in a restaurant, where the customer is one system, and the kitchen is another. The waiter API tells the customer what services are available, can relay requests to the kitchen, and can access restricted information like the order’s position in the queue. The customer doesn’t need to know the specifics of how this restaurant works or how their orders are processed and can instead simply placeOrder and trust that the waiter API will translate that to fit their backend kitchen system.