Practical engineering tips, design theory and performance breakdowns — written for developers and founders who like their advice tested in production.
Filtering by tag #api — clear
There are dozens of HTTP status codes, but about fifteen cover nearly everything. What each one means, when to return it, and the mix-ups (401 vs 403, 301 vs 302) that confuse everyone.
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That red "blocked by CORS policy" message is the browser doing its job. Here is what it protects, why preflight requests fail, and how to fix CORS on the server for good.
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Changing an API after clients depend on it is painful. The design decisions worth getting right early: resource naming, status codes, error format, pagination, versioning and idempotency.
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GraphQL solves real problems, and creates a few new ones. How the two compare on flexibility, caching, performance, tooling and security, and how to decide which fits your API.
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Payment confirmations, Git pushes and form submissions often arrive as webhooks. How they work, how to verify signatures, handle retries and duplicates, and test them on your laptop.
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One script hammering your login endpoint, or one user looping your AI feature, can take down a server or empty a budget. How rate limiting works, which algorithm to pick, and how to add it.
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