Top API books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite API books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of API

Understanding the concepts of API starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Hands-On RESTful API Design Patterns and Best Practices: Design, Develop, and Deploy Highly Adaptable, Scalable, and Secure RESTful Web APIs

This book deals with the Representational State Transfer (REST) paradigm, which is an architectural style that allows networked devices to communicate with each other over the internet. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

RESTful API Design

Looking for Best Practices for RESTful APIs?This book is for you! Why? Because this book is packed with practical experience on what works best for RESTful API Design. You want to design APIs like a Pro? Use API description languages to both design APIs and develop APIs efficiently. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

RESTful Web Services Cookbook

While the REST design philosophy has captured the imagination of web and enterprise developers alike, using this approach to develop real web services is no picnic. This cookbook includes more than 100 recipes to help you take advantage of REST, HTTP, and the infrastructure of the Web. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

System Design Interview – An insider's guide

System design questions are often the most difficult of all technical interview questions. This book makes them easier to tackle. It is Volume 1 of the ‘System Design Interview - An Insider’s Guide’ series. This volume provides a reliable strategy and knowledge base for approaching a broad range of system design questions that you may encounter. It will help you feel confident during this impo…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Pro RESTful APIs: Design, Build and Integrate with REST, JSON, XML and JAX-RS

Discover the RESTful technologies, including REST, JSON, XML, JAX-RS web services, SOAP and more, for building today's microservices, big data applications, and web service applications. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Undisturbed REST: A Guide to Designing the Perfect API

Believe it or not, building an API is the easy part. What is far more challenging is to put together a design that will stand the test of time, while also meeting your developers' needs. After all, no matter how well written your code may be, without a strong foundation, you will find your API quickly failing. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional API Reading

These books are not required for you to learn API, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

REST API Development with Node.js: Manage and Understand the Full Capabilities of Successful REST Development

Manage and understand the full capabilities of successful REST development. REST API development is a hot topic in the programming world, but not many resources exist for developers to really understand ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Design of Web APIs

Summary The Design of Web APIs is a practical, example-packed guide to crafting extraordinary web APIs. Author Arnaud Lauret demonstrates fantastic design principles and techniques you can apply to both public and private web APIs. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

API Design Patterns

API Design Patterns lays out a set of design principles for building internal and public-facing APIs.A collection of best practices and design standards for web and internal APIs. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Unbundling the Enterprise: APIs, Optionality, and the Science of Happy Accidents

Unbundling the Enterprise provides a blueprint for organizations to remain relevant and maximize growth in the digital economy by embracing the flexibility and optionality enabled by APIs.
Drawing on real-world examples of both innovative “digital pirates” and legacy “digital settlers,” authors Stephen Fishman and Matt McLarty articulate strategies to unbundle business capabilities into reu…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

RESTful Web APIs: Services for a Changing World

The popularity of REST in recent years has led to tremendous growth in almost-RESTful APIs that don’t include many of the architecture’s benefits. With this practical guide, you’ll learn what it takes to design usable REST APIs that evolve over time. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Prompt Engineering for LLMs: The Art and Science of Building Large Language Model–Based Applications

Large language models (LLMs) are revolutionizing the world, promising to automate tasks and solve complex problems. A new generation of software applications are using these models as building blocks to unlock new potential in almost every domain, but reliably accessing these capabilities requires new skills. This book will teach you the art and science of prompt engineering-the key to unlocki…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Specializations and Deeper API Knowledge

You've got your basics in order – time to move on to some advanced and specialized concepts. API is evolving every day, these books can help you master it.

Mastering API Architecture

Most organizations with a web presence build and operate APIs; the doorway for customers to interact with the company's services. Designing, building, and managing these critical programs affect everyone in the organization, from engineers and product owners to C-suite executives. ...

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

Augment your API books

There is no better source of accountability and motivation than having a personal mentor. What used to be impossible to find is now just two clicks away! All mentors are vetted & hands-on!

Only 1 Spot Left

15+ yrs exp, 10+ as CEO/Exec, leading teams, raising capital, building tech, scaling, investing and advising companies. Hey there! I'm Aly, a Canadian-based entrepreneur, investor and advisor who has spent over a decade building, investing and advising companies. I've had the opportunity to build both bootstrapped and venture-backed companies, learning …

$220 / month
  Chat
2 x Calls
Tasks

Only 1 Spot Left

Are you a junior developer looking to fast track your career in web development? Do you need guidance on learning the right and up to date content, building real-world projects, and preparing for job interviews? Look no further! I am a Senior Software Engineer with 9 years of experience in …

$240 / month
  Chat
4 x Calls
Tasks

Only 1 Spot Left

Senior Software Engineer at GitHub. I work on distributed systems with a focus on developer and infrastructure tooling. My interests include Go, Kubernetes, networking, containers, observability, Rust, eBPF, and WebAssembly. I like combining systems engineering and developer experience to build tools that make it easier to run and scale cloud-native …

$390 / month
  Chat
Regular Calls
Tasks

Only 4 Spots Left

My name is Tayo Ososanya. I am a Data Enthusiast, GCP certified Machine Learning Engineer and Lead Data Scientist at NBrown Group, United Kingdom. I have faced similar struggles more than once throughout my corporate career having immigrated from West Africa to the United Kingdom in 2018. I have learnt …

$70 / month
  Chat
2 x Calls

Only 1 Spot Left

With 10+ years of experience in private equity, investment banking, and equity research, I help finance professionals and aspiring leaders advance their careers. Currently a Vice President at a fintech-focused private equity firm, I specialize in early-stage and growth investing, particularly in financial services like lending, insurance, payments, and asset …

$150 / month
  Chat
1 x Call
Tasks

Only 3 Spots Left

With over 17+ years of expertise in product development, I am specialized in the developing of multi-tier, client-server, event-driven, and distributed applications. Over the past few years, I have worked on technology transformational projects for renowned organizations such as Volkswagen, SAP Labs, Transamerica, and AMEX. My core expertise includes: - …

$150 / month
  Chat
1 x Call
Tasks

Browse all API mentors

Still not convinced?
Don’t just take our word for it

We’ve already delivered 1-on-1 mentorship to thousands of students, professionals, managers and executives. Even better, they’ve left an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for our mentors.

Find a API mentor
  • "Naz is an amazing person and a wonderful mentor. She is supportive and knowledgeable with extensive practical experience. Having been a manager at Netflix, she also knows a ton about working with teams at scale. Highly recommended."

  • "Brandon has been supporting me with a software engineering job hunt and has provided amazing value with his industry knowledge, tips unique to my situation and support as I prepared for my interviews and applications."

  • "Sandrina helped me improve as an engineer. Looking back, I took a huge step, beyond my expectations."