In this episode of The API Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into a pervasive problem: webhooks that fire too much and overwhelm their consumers. They start with a real-world failure — a payment processor that pounded a merchant's endpoint with redundant notifications — and unpack the design flaws behind it. Lucas explains why webhook delivery should include idempotency, why senders need to honor retry-after headers and exponential backoff, and how consumer-side circuit breakers can stop a bad sender from taking down an entire service. Luna brings in a story about a weather API that learned to batch alerts and a delivery service that trimmed its webhook payload by eighty percent after a versioning overhaul. Together they map out a short checklist every API team should run before shipping a webhook: idempotency keys, stable event ordering, explicit retry policies, and a clear contract for delivery attempts. The episode closes with a practical question for listeners building webhook consumers: what does your failure mode look like when the sender goes rogue?

#API #Webhooks #API Design #Backend #DeveloperTools #EventDriven #SystemDesign #Reliability #Idempotency #RetryStrategy #CircuitBreaker #PayloadOptimization #Tech #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #APIPodcast #WebDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the Prefer HTTP header, a powerful but often overlooked tool that lets clients ask for specific response behaviors from an API. They explore real-world uses like returning minimal representations, waiting for asynchronous processing, and handling pagination preferences. With concrete examples from major APIs like GitHub and Stripe, they explain how Prefer complements other standards like conditional requests and idempotency keys. The conversation also covers practical implementation strategies, including how to handle unknown preferences and communicate support via the Preference-Applied header. By the end, listeners will understand how to use Prefer to reduce payload bloat, improve user experience, and build more flexible APIs. Tune in for a focused, technical deep dive that will change how you think about HTTP semantics.

#HTTPPreferHeader #APIDesign #RESTfulAPIs #WebDevelopment #ResponseShaping #AsynchronousAPIs #APIBestPractices #TechPodcast #DeveloperTools #LucasAndLuna #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #APIPatterns #ClientServer #HTTPHeaders #APIOptimization #TechTalk #PodcastEpisode

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In this episode of The API Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore backpressure — the often-overlooked mechanism that keeps APIs from being overwhelmed by their own success. Using the example of a payment gateway that handles millions of transactions per day, they explain how backpressure works, why it matters more than ever in event-driven architectures, and how it differs from rate limiting and throttling. They discuss practical strategies like message queuing, circuit breakers, and load shedding, and show how systems like Kafka and reactive streams use backpressure to stay resilient. If you've ever wondered why some APIs fail gracefully while others collapse under load, this episode gives you the mental model and vocabulary to understand it — and maybe even apply it to your own systems.

#Backpressure #APIDesign #EventDrivenArchitecture #ReactiveStreams #Kafka #LoadShedding #CircuitBreaker #MessageQueue #Resilience #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #APISecurity #DistributedSystems #Scalability #Microservices #SystemDesign #TechPodcast

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the practical problem of API payload bloat and how modern query languages like GraphQL and OData solve it. They use the case of a hypothetical e-commerce checkout flow to show how REST responses can carry twice the data you need, and how a query language lets the client ask for exactly the fields it wants. They also touch on the trade-offs: caching headaches, security risks, and the extra complexity on the server side. If you've ever felt your API responses are heavier than they should be, this episode gives you a clear framework for deciding when a query language is worth it — and when a simple REST endpoint with a couple of query parameters is still the right call. Plus, they share a few field-selection tricks that work even if you're stuck with REST. By the end, you'll know how to trim your payloads without losing your mind.

#GraphQL #OData #PayloadBloat #APIDesign #RESTfulAPI #FieldSelection #QueryLanguages #APIOptimization #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #WebAPIs #APIDevelopment #ClientServer #DataTransfer #ECommerce #APISecurity #Caching

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In this episode of The API Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the world of API pagination—the unsung hero that keeps data flowing smoothly. They explore why Facebook's GraphQL API uses cursor-based pagination, how Stripe's list endpoints default to sensible limits, and why offset pagination can turn into a performance nightmare at scale. With real-world examples and practical tips, they explain the trade-offs between offset, cursor, and keyset pagination, and how to choose the right strategy for your API. If you've ever wondered why some APIs return a 'next' link instead of a page number, this episode is for you. Tune in to learn how to prevent data overload and keep your users happy.

#APIPagination #CursorBasedPagination #OffsetPagination #KeysetPagination #GraphQL #RESTAPI #WebAPI #DataOverload #APIStrategy #Stripe #Facebook #DeveloperTools #APIDesign #TechPodcast #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #Technology #SoftwareEngineering

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In this episode of The API Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the bulkhead pattern, a resilience technique that isolates API resources so one slow or failing client can't take down the whole system. They break down how Bulkhead works with real-world examples from finance and e-commerce, explain the difference between thread pools, semaphores, and circuit breakers, and share practical guidance on sizing bulkheads and handling rejected requests. If you're designing APIs that need to stay up under load, this episode gives you a concrete strategy to protect your services and your users.

#BulkheadPattern #APIResilience #ThreadPools #Semaphores #CircuitBreakers #SystemDesign #APIDesign #Microservices #TechPodcast #SoftwareEngineering #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #APIPodcast #ResilienceEngineering #Bulkheading #FaultTolerance #APIArchitecture #DeveloperPodcast

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In this episode of The API Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into idempotency keys — the unsung heroes of reliable API design. You've probably used them without knowing: every time a payment gateway tells you to retry with the same key, that's idempotency at work. Lucas explains how idempotency keys work, why they matter beyond payments, and how Stripe made them a de facto standard. Luna brings up a real-world example: a double charge that happened on a ride-sharing app, and how the lack of idempotency caused it. They also cover the HTTP layer — how idempotent methods like PUT and DELETE fit in, and where POST and PATCH get tricky. If you're building or consuming APIs, this episode gives you one concrete pattern to steal: always send an idempotency key on every state-changing request. Tune in for a clear, no-fluff breakdown of a concept that keeps your data consistent.

#IdempotencyKeys #APIDesign #StripeAPI #HTTPMethods #PaymentAPIs #ReliableAPIs #RetryStrategies #POSTandPATCH #PUTandDELETE #DataConsistency #DistributedSystems #DeveloperTips #APIBestPractices #TechPodcast #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #SoftwareEngineering #APISecurity

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

On this episode of The API Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the art of retries in API design. They explore the difference between transient and permanent failures, explain why exponential backoff with jitter is a must-have, and walk through real-world examples like Stripe's default retry behavior and how idempotency keys prevent duplicate charges. They also tackle the tricky balance between client-side retries and server load, the role of Retry-After headers, and the dangers of retry storms. If you've ever wondered why your API calls fail on a shaky Wi-Fi but succeed on the third try, this episode is for you. Along the way, they share their philosophy on keeping the show ad-free and how listener support helps. Tune in for a practical, no-nonsense guide to making your APIs more resilient.

#APIRetry #ExponentialBackoff #IdempotencyKeys #TransientFailures #RetryAfter #ResilientAPIs #BackoffJitter #Stripe #APIResilience #TechPodcast #DeveloperTips #APIDesign #SystemDesign #RetryStorm #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #Tech #APIs

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

In episode 157 of The API Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into conditional GET requests and how they let HTTP caches skip re-sending unchanged responses. They walk through ETags and Last-Modified headers, explain the difference between 200 and 304 status codes, and show how adding a few headers can cut bandwidth and latency dramatically. Using real-world examples like a large e-commerce site's product catalog API, they discuss when conditional GETs make sense and when they don't, plus how to handle the tricky edge cases around weak validators and server-side complexity. If you've ever wondered why some APIs feel snappy even on slow connections, this episode gives you the low-level answer. And along the way, Lucas and Luna share why they keep the show ad-free and how listeners can support that mission with a small contribution. Tune in for a focused, practical look at a technique that every API designer should consider.

#ConditionalGET #HTTPCaching #ETags #LastModified #APIDesign #WebPerformance #RESTfulAPI #TechPodcast #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #API #Cache #Bandwidth #Latency #HTTPStatus #304 #WebDev

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

When your API client asks for JSON but the server says XML, who wins? In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into HTTP content negotiation — the quiet protocol powering everything from REST APIs to GraphQL. They walk through the Accept header, server-driven negotiation, and the Vary response header, using real examples like GitHub and Stripe. You'll learn why content negotiation is your API's best friend for versioning, caching, and serving multiple formats without breaking clients. Plus, they share a clever trick for debugging negotiation issues with curl and a practical tip for designing APIs that handle both JSON and XML gracefully. If you've ever wondered how your API decides what to send back, this episode has the answers.

#ContentNegotiation #HTTPHeaders #APIDesign #RESTAPI #GraphQL #JSON #XML #AcceptHeader #VaryHeader #ServerDriven #ClientDriven #Caching #APIVersioning #WebDevelopment #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #API

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo