With the advent of low-code and no-code tools, building apis is easier and faster than ever. But because development is so simple, it’s easy to overlook potential problems that can have a downstream impact on the entire business.

Taking the extra time during the design phase ensures that the API is truly useful, secure, extensible, and stable.

This article discusses 10 common mistakes THAT API developers need to avoid to help them develop higher-quality apis.

10 Common Mistakes API developers need to avoid

1. API developer errors lead to bloated responses

From a coding standpoint, the call returns the entire object, rather than a specific parameter. The problem is that such calls cause more problems than value. These bloated response parameters are meaningless to consumers and affect latency and bandwidth at both ends.

So you need to build flexibility into the method so that the consumer can choose whether to return the full object or the specific parameters required.

** 2, multiple scenarios isolation call **

Testing individual methods individually is only useful for unit testing, but there is no guarantee that the same method will work in the application ecosystem. We can get positive results in unit tests, but encounter errors in actual use tests. To avoid this problem, we need to run each method in multiple scenarios to make sure it works.

3. Not understanding the problem that needs to be solved

Problems are bound to arise when there is a disconnect between requirements and what developers think is a problem. This unfortunate but common error can disappoint users and waste our time reworking. To avoid this problem, evaluate the entire workflow to see how it fits in.

4. API developer errors lead to time-consuming troubleshooting

When the error message prompt doesn’t make sense to the consumer, it causes unnecessary work on both ends. Consumers must spend hours trying to fix the problem. In the end, we had to help them too, and eventually did some rework to create more useful error message prompts. We need to create useful error message prompts by explaining exactly what each error means and where it went wrong. Also, stick with the well-known status code.

5. Ignore scalability

With the passage of time, the increase of usage, put forward higher requirements on the system. Application programming interfaces (APIS) need to handle requirements and extensions appropriately. Planning for extensibility at the design stage can help avoid this problem.

6. Lack of help documentation

In the absence of help documentation, no one is going to make deep use of our newly developed application programming interfaces. This problem can lead to decreased satisfaction and endless troubleshooting. Provides comprehensive help documentation that explains how to use the API. Ensure documentation is kept up to date; This lets the user know how to use any feature.

7. Insufficient input validation

When we don’t spend enough time on data validation, someone will always find bugs that cause problems. It can be as simple as passing invalid data in seemingly innocuous fields. Take the time to validate every input the consumer sends to minimize the chance of this happening.

8. The high polling request is improperly processed

Frequent requests from users looking for the latest data tend to put unnecessary pressure on the system. Rather than having customers request updates, use a framework like Webhooks that push updated data when it changes. This reduces unnecessary polling.

Redundant endpoints

Redundant endpoints are a nightmare for support and refactoring. This API development error occurs when multiple endpoints return the same data, because we need to update all endpoints that reference that data. When implementing new endpoints to support various use cases, keep an eye out for updates to ensure that no endpoints contain the same information that might be reused.

10. No performance optimization

Sending multiple requests to complete a task can result in latency and bandwidth overhead. We can optimize performance by batching these small requests into a single call. These batch processing requests are useful for consumers who want to send a large number of requests to the same process.

Create a fully functional API using Eolink

Developing robust, extensible, and useful apis doesn’t have to be complicated. If we follow a few extra steps and avoid these 10 common API development mistakes, we can minimize rework and create a fully functional API that provides a lot of value. In addition, using visual API development tools such as Eolink can also help us build apis quickly and easily.

The interface management tool used in the figure is Eolink, which can test different types of interfaces and add different steps in the test process. If you are interested, you can use www.eolink.com