Category Archives: Blog-Quarter-4

REST Easy: The API Guide Everyone Needs

In a world where apps constantly exchange information, REST APIs play a major role in making that communication fast, smooth, and reliable. Whether you’re checking your bank balance, ordering Uber Eats, or posting on Instagram, a REST API is working behind the scenes. But what exactly is a REST API, and why does it matter? Let’s break it down in a beginner-friendly way.

What Is a REST API?

A REST (Representational State Transfer) API is a set of rules that allows different software systems to communicate over the internet using simple, predictable URLs. REST is not a programming language, it’s an architectural style that uses standard HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE to perform operations.

For example:

  • GET retrieves data
  • POST creates new data
  • PUT/PATCH updates data
  • DELETE removes data

Because REST uses these familiar operations, it is easy to understand and widely supported across web technologies.

How REST APIs Work

REST APIs treat everything as a resource, which is represented by a URL. For example, an e-commerce API might represent a product like this:

GET https://api.example.com/users/25

When your app sends that request, the API returns a response often in JSON, a lightweight format that is easy for humans and machines to read.

REST APIs follow a key principle: statelessness. This means the server does not store any information about past requests. Each request must contain everything needed to understand it. This makes REST fast, scalable, and ideal for large applications.

Why REST APIs Are So Popular

Because REST is simple, flexible, and language-independent, it has become the backbone of modern web and mobile development. Companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, Stripe, and Spotify structure their services around REST principles.

  • Simple — They use familiar web protocols like HTTP.
  • Flexible — You can use them with any programming language.
  • Scalable — They handle heavy traffic without breaking.
  • Separation-friendly — Frontend and backend teams can work independently.

Companies like Spotify, Google, and Amazon depend heavily on REST APIs to integrate services and deliver smooth user experiences.

Developers prefer REST APIs because:

  • They are easy to build and maintain
  • They work across many platforms
  • They separate frontend and backend development

In short, REST APIs allow apps to interact smoothly, reliably, and efficiently—powering almost everything we do online.

Conclusion

REST APIs remain one of the most important tools in modern software development. Their simplicity and scalability make them ideal for beginners and professionals alike. Whether you’re building your first backend or integrating external services into an app, understanding REST APIs is essential in today’s tech landscape.

References:

https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/rest-apis

https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/api/what-is-a-rest-api

https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/restful-api

https://www.codecademy.com/article/what-is-rest-api

From the blog CS@Worcester – MY_BLOG_ by Serah Matovu and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Delving Deeper into Rest API

I have been learning more about REST API. Currently I have been working on backend implementation. Working on this is somewhat difficult. I understand how to implement new endpoints to get certain objects, but I have trouble in other things. It mostly has to do with the current homework.

So, I decided to learn more about it. I went to a blog from Stack Overflow since it is well known for having useful information about coding. If you need a question answered or a working piece of code you go there. I have used it before, and it was helpful. Hopefully, by the end I get a better understanding of the material and can utilize that newfound knowledge in the homework.

I used this: Best practices for REST API design – Stack Overflow

The article discusses the best practices for REST API design. It discusses using logical nesting to group associated information, and handling errors gracefully. It also discusses allowing filtering, sorting and paginating data. They are utilized to help deal with large data by only outputting the data that is needed. Let’s say there is 400 pieces of data and you only need 4%. By filtering, you can get that 4% without dealing with a slowdown and having to parse through data to see the 4%. The article also discusses versioning APIs, maintaining good security practices, caching data and minor things like using nouns instead of verbs in endpoints. It also discusses the importance of JSON and how it can be used for transferring data.

There is useful information but the one that stood out to me was the one about filtering, sorting and paginating data. There is a part of my homework that requires filtration. I need to make sure that when guest age is called, depending on the way GET is structured the resulting list is greater than, less than or equivalent to the chosen value. That section in the article gave me an idea. Like the example given in that section, I could use an if statement to filter out results. This may get the result I want.

To conclude, this article has been really useful to me. It has helped me understand what I have to do for a part of my homework assignment. It was interesting to learn ways to improve my REST API design. I may not know if you I will use this information in the future, but I know that I will use it now.

From the blog CS@Worcester – My Journey through Comp Sci by Joanna Presume and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Choosing the Right Open Source License

Choose an open source license

For this week’s self-directed professional development, I explored the topic of choosing open source licenses, which is a fundamental but often overlooked part of releasing software. I based my reading on ChooseALicense.com and supporting resources that explain how permissive licenses, copyleft licenses, and public domain-style licenses differ. What I found most interesting is how a license doesn’t just define legal rules — it reflects the values, intentions, and goals of a developer or a team. Software licensing shapes how a project evolves, how a community forms, and how contributions are handled over time.

Open source licenses fall into a few broad categories. Permissive licenses like MIT or Apache 2.0 give users almost complete freedom to reuse the code, even in closed-source commercial products. Copyleft licenses like GPL ensure that any derivative work must remain open source under the same license. And options like the Unlicense or CC0 place code essentially in the public domain, allowing anyone to use it with zero restrictions. Before this week, I assumed licensing was just a legal formality, but now I understand how strongly each license type influences collaboration and long-term project direction.

I chose this topic because licensing is directly connected to the work we do in Software Process, especially when we talk about transparency, collaboration, and project ownership. As future developers, we will eventually publish our own tools, libraries, or contributions. Knowing how to license our work is part of being a responsible member of the open source community. Many people assume that posting code publicly means anyone can use it, but without a license, nobody can legally copy, modify, or reuse it. That detail alone made this topic worth exploring, and it helped me rethink how important explicit permissions are.

One thing I learned is that choosing a license is really about choosing a philosophy. If a developer wants to share knowledge broadly, enable commercial use, and reduce friction for adoption, a permissive license makes sense. If the goal is to ensure the code stays free for everyone and cannot be closed off by others, a copyleft license protects that intention. The reading made me think carefully about what I would want if I released a personal project. Personally, I lean toward permissive licenses because I want people to build on my work without worrying about legal constraints. But I also understand why larger community-focused projects might choose GPL to preserve openness.

Going forward, I expect licensing to be something I pay more attention to in both school projects and professional work. As software engineers, we’re not just writing code; we’re shaping how others can interact with it. Licensing is part of that responsibility. This topic helped me better appreciate the intersection between technology, ethics, creativity, and law — and it reminded me that releasing software is more than just pushing code to GitHub; it’s about defining how that code fits into the larger ecosystem of open source development.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Life of Chris by Christian Oboh and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.