A waiter between you and the kitchen
Day 1 of 149
👉 Full deep-dive with code examples
The Restaurant Analogy
Imagine you're at a restaurant. You don't walk into the kitchen to cook your own food.
You → Waiter → Kitchen
- You tell the waiter what you want
- The waiter goes to the kitchen
- The kitchen prepares your order
- The waiter brings it back
The waiter is the API!
In Tech Terms
Your app doesn't talk directly to servers. It uses an API:
Your App → API → Server/Database
The API:
- Takes your request
- Talks to the system you can't access directly
- Returns the data you need
Real Example
Your weather app doesn't have weather stations. It asks:
Weather App: "Hey Weather API, what's the weather in Sydney?"
Weather API: "25°C and sunny ☀️"
That's it. Your app gets data without knowing HOW it was measured.
Why It Matters
APIs let different programs talk to each other:
- Google Maps API → Embed maps in any app
- Stripe API → Accept payments
- Twitter API → Show tweets on your site
You don't rebuild Google Maps. You just ask their API.
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