API Fundamentals
for Practitioners
Course Summary
Gain the confidence you need to better understand what web-based APIs are, the business value of APIs, and the technical details of how they work including details of the HTTP protocol.
This is a self-paced course that serves as a foundation for anyone consuming and/or designing and delivering APIs, including software engineers, architects, app developers, technical writers, and technical product managers.
Note: No coding is required for this course. However, the course assumes a technical background as it goes into the details of the HTTP protocol. If you want a less technical introduction to APIs, check out our API Fundamentals for Product Leaders course.
Course Outcomes
This course will help you gain an understanding of API essentials, including what they are, how they work, and why they are an important element of digital transformation.
Earn a Certificate of Completion
A badge and certificate of completion are awarded upon successful completion of the course, including passing all quizzes and assignments.
Course Objectives and Skill Badges
As you complete this course, skill badges will be awarded as you achieve the following unit objectives:
Understanding APIs
- Explain what APIs are and how they work
- Identify ways in which businesses leverage APIs
- Explain API products and API platforms
Skill badge awarded: Understanding APIs
HTTP: The Language of the Web
- Explain how HTTP supports the web and APIs
- Identify the elements of a URI
- Differentiate between URIs and URLs
- Explain the high-level process of HTTP request/response interactions
- Identify the elements of an HTTP request
- Identify the elements of an HTTP response
Skill badge awarded: HTTP: The Language of the Web
Working with JSON
- Describe why JSON is a popular API data format
- Identify the elements of a JSON object
- Compose a JSON object with multiple properties and property types, given an example data structure
Skill badge awarded: Working with JSON
Principles of REST
- Explain a REST-based architecture
- Identify the architectural principles and constraints of REST
Skill badge awarded: Principles of REST
Exploring REST
- Explain REST terminology and concepts
- Identify the CRUD pattern and differentiate it from REST architecture
- Explain the common HTTP methods used with the CRUD pattern in REST-based APIs
- Explain the common HTTP headers used with REST-based APIs
- Create a sequence of REST-based API requests to produce a described outcome using provided API documentation
Skill badge awarded: Exploring REST
Ready to Get Started?
Register now to get started with this self-paced course:
Looking for more course delivery options? We also offer private workshop and enterprise site license options.