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Interview LineLesson

API design: one line per requirement

Requirements and estimates are on the board. In a few minutes, turn "create an album, invite friends, add a photo, open an album" into a handful of endpoints — and settle the two questions that matter most: how long lists page, and which writes are safe to retry.

12 minEasyStation: API design

Members lesson

Membership isn’t open yet. The free lessons are open — 19 of them.

Start a free lessonSee the path
  1. Requirements and scope
  2. Back-of-the-envelope estimates
  3. API design
  4. Data model
  5. High-level design
Interview Line — where this lesson sits

What you'll be able to do

  1. 1Explain how resources (nouns) and standard methods turn functional requirements into endpoints, and which HTTP methods a client may repeat safely after a timeout.
  2. 2Choose cursor or offset paging for a list, and decide which writes need an idempotency key so that a retry can't create a duplicate.
  3. 3Choose between a plain synchronous response, a 202 Accepted with a status endpoint, and an RPC-style call for an operation, given how long it takes and who calls it.

Inside the lesson

steps
10
questions
15
simulations
0

More on the Interview Line

  1. Interview & rubric: 45 minutes, no answer keyOpen13 min
  2. Requirements: ask what changes the designMembers12 min
  3. Back-of-the-envelope: find the number that mattersMembers12 min
  4. Data model: from endpoints to keysMembers14 min
  5. High-level design: every box answers to the boardMembers14 min