Api Courses

API stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries. Examples of APIs include the ability to log into a site using your Facebook login credentials, or paying for something online using your PayPal account.

APIs are important to learn for Developers looking to use their skills to help businesses grow faster and save money. It’s costly for businesses to use disparate systems to offer services, whereas integrating services can actually increase revenue by joining forces with other enterprises. Other benefits of APIs include extending customer reach and value, supporting sales and marketing activities, easing integration of backend data and applications, and more.‎

APIs are needed in a wide variety of industries, providing many opportunities in full-time or consulting roles for API Engineers. Depending on the industry, organization size/type, location, and years of experience, salaries can vary. The median salary for someone with a Bachelor’s degree is $103,620 per year, and with 31 percent job growth through 2026 among Software and Application Developers, the outlook for jobs in API is promising.

Other than API Engineer, learners interested in APIs can explore such job opportunities as Software Engineer, Backend Developer, Product Manager, Technical Writer, API Tester, User Experience Protoyper, AP Strategist, Data Engineer, Marketing Data Analyst, and various others.‎

API courses offered through Coursera equip learners with knowledge in developing APIs with the Apigee API Platform; understanding the fundamentals of developing and securing APIs; navigating through the Apigee Edge UI; troubleshooting within the Apigee platform; and more.

Lessons on APIs are taught by instructors from major tech names, including Google Cloud Training. Course content on APIs is delivered via hands-on projects, video lectures, readings, quizzes, and other types of assignments.‎

The skills and experience that you might need to already have before starting to learn API may include an understanding of basic programming languages, like JavaScript, PHP, or MySQL. Knowing how to work with these programming languages can help you to more quickly learn an application programming interface (API). If you want to learn how to write your own API, it becomes a task similar to other programming tasks where you're building a program to be used by other programmers. You first define the interface, then specify how programs will use requests and responses, and then implement the underlying functionality.‎

The kind of people who are best suited for work that involves API are software engineers who know programming, are detail-oriented, and can see a bigger picture from all of the coding details that are involved. Developers use good APIs as useful tools since they can insert an advanced piece of technology into their software simply by adding a small bit of code into the API for the work involved. Of course, you might know that developers use a type of API to unlock access to features of other hardware devices. For instance, Google Maps uses your phone’s geo-location API to be able to present its maps accurately to the user. Many other platforms use a separate API to bring their software into more use for consumers. Its uses are seemingly endless, and many companies rely heavily on APIs today. If this sounds interesting to you, you are likely well suited for roles in API.‎

You might know if learning API is right for you if you are involved in using JavaScript for software development and love to help friends and colleagues out by creating an interface system of tools and resources in an operating system for their software ideas. JavaScript is often used in creating APIs, and the API acts as a messenger, returning a response for a particular software request. If you enjoy programming and love the process that APIs bring to websites and landing pages, then learning API is right for you.‎