Require that every read-heavy API sets explicit HTTP caching headers, so I want Cache-Control, ETag, and Last-Modified in play with sensible max-age and validation behavior spelled out in the contract. I lean on caching because the cheapest, fastest request is the one your origin never has to serve, and consumers who can safely reuse a response put far less load on your infrastructure. Left undefined, caching becomes accidental, and you end up with either stale data burning trust or no caching at all burning money. Decide it deliberately, document it, and enforce it at the gateway so the behavior is consistent across every endpoint.
Caching (Operations)
Strategies
APIs Scale Efficiently Under Load
All APIs must be designed to scale efficiently as consumer traffic and data volumes grow, employing caching, pagination, filtering, and batch operations to ensure consistent performance and avoid d...
Experiences
Performance
Performance is the experience of how fast and consistently an API responds under real-world conditions. Latency, throughput, and predictability directly shape how consumers perceive an API and whet...
Scalability
Scalability is the experience of an API continuing to work well as demand grows from dozens of consumers to millions of requests. It touches infrastructure, rate limiting, caching, and design decis...
Reliability
If an API isn’t reliable, consumers will eventually look for alternatives. Reliability starts with the platform and infrastructure where the API is deployed, but it also depends heavily on the pace...
Lifecycle
cached Caching Develop
Caching is one of the most underused tools for making APIs fast and affordable. Thoughtful use of HTTP caching, edge caching, and cache headers reduces load and improves the consumer experience at ...
tune Management Production
Management is the day-to-day operation of an API in production. Plans, rate limits, keys, and access all get administered here, usually through a gateway. Solid management is what lets me offer an ...
