Engineer Explains: What engineers, designers and product managers need to know about APIs

APIs are the glue that holds modern applications together.

Software engineers often work with various APIs, so they must understand them. But they’re also hard to understand until you really start using them. A metaphor of a waiter has often been used to illustrate what APIs do – just as waiters go back and forth between customers at a restaurant and the kitchen and enable customers to order food without each of them having to go to the kitchen and order their meal.

Similarly, Steve McDougall, DevRel at an API ops tool Treblle, compares an API to a game controller for your gaming console – giving you control of something you don’t have access to.

But how would you describe what an API is and does to a designer or a product manager? And why is that important? Watch the video and find out.

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s new video series, Engineer Explains.

We’ve asked experienced engineers to share how they would explain some basic and some less basic tech terminology to different job tech job titles or at three levels of experience – from junior developer to CTO.

This Engineer Explains video ws created in partnership with WeAreDevelopers World Congress. Find the tickets here for the next one taking place in Berlin, 17th-19th July.

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How would you explain internal developer platform or software architecture at three levels of experience?