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.

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. ...

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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. ...

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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…

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REST in Practice

Why don't typical enterprise projects go as smoothly as projects you develop for the Web? Does the REST architectural style really present a viable alternative for building distributed systems and enterprise-class applications? ...

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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. ...

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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…

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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

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

Designing Web APIs: Building APIs That Developers Love

Using a web API to provide services to application developers is one of the more satisfying endeavors that software engineers undertake. But building a popular API with a thriving developer ecosystem is also one of the most challenging. ...

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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. ...

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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

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

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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: - …

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