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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

API

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˌeɪ piː ˈaɪ/abbreviationCore term

In software engineering, API means: Short for application programming interface: a set of rules that lets one program ask another program for data or actions in a fixed, documented way.

In Turkish: uygulama programlama arayüzü, programlama arayüzü

How it is used

Everywhere in modern software. You call, use, design, document and version an API. People talk about a 'public API', an 'internal API', a 'REST API' and an 'API key'.

Example sentences

  1. The mobile app gets all its data from our API.

  2. Their API has a limit of 100 requests per minute.

  3. We need to design the API before the frontend team can start.

Common collocations

  • call an API
  • public API
  • API key
  • API documentation
  • design an API
  • endpointA specific URL of an API that accepts requests for one kind of action, such as GET /users to list users or POST /orders to create an order.
  • RESTShort for representational state transfer: a common style for web APIs in which resources have URLs and are handled with HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT and DELETE.
  • JSONShort for JavaScript Object Notation: a simple text format for data, made of key-value pairs and lists, used by most web APIs.
  • SDKShort for software development kit: a package of libraries, tools and documentation that helps developers build on a platform or use a service.
  • authenticationThe process of checking who a user or system is, for example with a password, a token or a fingerprint, before giving access.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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