The Desi Architect
Notes / Interview Foundations / API Contract and Data Model
Track 1 · Interview Foundations

API Contract and Data Model

Write down the requests and responses first, then the entities, then the keys that make your common queries one lookup. IDs, retries, pagination and error codes are where most designs quietly go wrong.

Guide20 min read
On this page
  1. The order that was charged twice
  2. The simple version
  3. API principles that matter in real systems
  4. Worked examples
  5. Data model: entities first
  6. Schema driven by queries
  7. Generating IDs
  8. The war room: a rename that broke old phones
  9. How to choose