What is an API?
Quick Answer
An API, or application programming interface, is a set of rules that lets one piece of software request data or services from another without knowing how it works inside.
The Full Story
A popular way to picture an API is a restaurant waiter: you do not walk into the kitchen, you give your order to the waiter, who brings back your food. In the same way, a weather app sends a request to a weather service API and receives the forecast in a structured format, usually JSON. APIs power everyday features like logging in with Google, paying online and showing maps inside other apps. Computer scientist Roy Fielding described the REST style that most web APIs use in his 2000 doctoral dissertation, and the Google Maps API, released in 2005, sparked a wave of mash-up apps. Today companies often treat their APIs as products, and much of the internet runs on software talking to software.
Key Facts
YouTube Angle
Suggested video title for this topic:
"APIs Explained Simply — The Invisible Waiters of the Internet"