API Design & Management — REST, GraphQL, gRPC
A two-day, cross-cutting course on designing and managing the lifecycle of APIs across three styles at once (REST, GraphQL, gRPC) — versioning, API gateways, and governance — for organizations where a microservices architecture demands an API-first approach, not just knowledge of a single technology.
A design decision, not just implementation
Most API material focuses on implementing a single technology. This course starts with the question that actually determines architectural success: which API style — REST, GraphQL, or gRPC — fits a specific use case, and why many mature organizations deliberately use all three in parallel, for different layers of the system.
Three styles, one consistent design logic
Rather than teaching three technologies in isolation, the program shows the shared skeleton of good interface design — consistency, predictability, a clear contract — and then the concrete implementation differences between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC, including practical pitfalls such as the N+1 problem in GraphQL.
An API as a product with a lifecycle
The final module treats an API not as a one-off artifact but as a product that needs to be managed over time: a gateway, governance, documentation, and a strategy for retiring old versions without breaking existing client integrations — a competency rarely covered by courses focused solely on one technology.
Benefits
- Design an API contract following the API-first approach (OpenAPI, GraphQL SDL, Protobuf)
- Make an informed choice of API style (REST vs. GraphQL vs. gRPC) suited to a specific use case
- Deploy an API versioning strategy without breaking backward compatibility for clients
- Design API lifecycle management: gateway, governance, documentation
Who is this training for?
Prerequisites
- Backend programming experience and basic familiarity with client-server architecture
- General awareness of at least one API style (REST, GraphQL, or gRPC) helps
Training program
API design fundamentals — the API-first approach
- API-first vs. code-first: why the contract should exist before implementation
- Defining contracts: OpenAPI (REST), GraphQL SDL, Protocol Buffers (gRPC)
- Good interface design principles: consistency, predictability, documentability
- Choosing an API style for a specific use case — decision criteria
REST — design patterns and versioning
- RESTful principles: resources, HTTP verbs, status codes, HATEOAS
- Pagination, filtering, and sorting patterns in REST APIs
- REST versioning strategies: URI, headers, content negotiation
- Error handling and a consistent error response format
GraphQL and gRPC — when and how to use them
- Designing a GraphQL schema: types, resolvers, avoiding the N+1 problem
- Optimizing GraphQL queries and limiting query complexity
- gRPC and Protocol Buffers: contracts, streaming, service-to-service communication
- Comparing performance and use cases: REST vs. GraphQL vs. gRPC
API lifecycle management
- API gateway: routing, rate limiting, authorization, request transformation
- API governance: organizational standards, contract review, an API catalog
- API documentation as a product — tools and keeping it up to date
- Deprecating and retiring old API versions without breaking client integrations
Delivery Methods
Online
- Convenience of participating from anywhere
- Interactive live sessions with trainer
- Materials available for 30 days
- No travel costs
On-site
- Direct contact with trainer and group
- Intensive hands-on workshops
- Networking with other participants
- Full focus on learning
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from the separate REST, GraphQL, and gRPC courses in our catalog?
The existing courses teach one technology in deep implementation detail (e.g., building a REST API with Node.js, integrating React with GraphQL, building gRPC services). This course is deliberately cross-cutting: it presents all three API styles side by side, focusing on the design decision — which style to choose and why — and on API lifecycle management (versioning, gateway, governance), which none of the individual technology courses cover to the same extent.
Which API style — REST, GraphQL, or gRPC — should I choose for a new project?
There is no single universal answer — REST works well for public APIs with a simple, resource-based data model, GraphQL suits interfaces for frontend applications with flexible query requirements, and gRPC fits internal microservice-to-microservice communication where performance and strong typing matter most. The course teaches concrete decision criteria rather than favoring one style — many organizations use all three in parallel, for different architecture layers.
What is an API gateway and why is it needed if microservices can communicate directly?
An API gateway centralizes cross-cutting concerns — authentication, rate limiting, routing, logging — that would otherwise have to be implemented separately in every microservice. Without a gateway, external clients would need to know the internal structure of the microservices system, which breaks encapsulation and makes it harder to change. The API lifecycle management module shows the concrete configuration of these functions.
What does the API-first approach mean in practice, and how does it differ from writing an API 'alongside' implementation?
API-first means designing and agreeing on an API contract (e.g., in OpenAPI) before any code implementing business logic is written — frontend and backend teams can then work in parallel based on the same contract, instead of waiting for a finished implementation. The course shows how to define such a contract in practice and use it as a single source of truth for both sides of an integration.
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Funding Options
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Development Services Database
Up to 80% funding for SMEs from EU funds
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Up to 100% funding for employers
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