HIGAET API Engineering
Study practical API engineering with careful REST and GraphQL design, versioning, authentication, validation, testing, documentation, rate limiting, and operational controls.
Duration
8 weeks · 6-8 hours/week
Level
Intermediate
Delivery
Online
Status
Open for enrollment
Why this technology matters.
API engineering is designing the contracts other software builds on: careful REST and GraphQL design, versioning, authentication, validation, testing, documentation, rate limiting, and operational controls. It matters now because web and mobile clients, partners, and services all break when contracts drift or behave inconsistently.
It is used for public and internal APIs serving product clients and integrations, solving versioning, pagination, filtering, error contracts, and client-server alignment. It does not solve upstream problems: documentation does not fix an unstable domain model, rate limiting does not fix an overloaded database, and mock servers do not fix clients that ignore the contract.
By the end you will be able to build a versioned REST API with pagination, filtering, sorting, and error contracts, a GraphQL schema with types, resolvers, mutations, and query budgets, and a documented API with contract tests, mock servers, staging environments, and backward-compatible releases.
Why this course exists
The gap is between an endpoint that returns JSON and a production API that stays versioned, validated, documented, tested against its clients, and safe to evolve without breaking them. The course teaches the arc from idea to design to code to test to deploy to operate, so students can own contracts through their full lifecycle.
Know exactly what you're signing up for.
Who is this for
Prerequisites
- Comfortable with HTTP fundamentals and JSON
- Basic programming experience consuming APIs
- Familiarity with Git and command-line tools
Technologies & tools
Skills you'll gain
A 8 weeks arc, module by module.
- Module 01
Module 01 — Foundations of APIs and Interface Contracts
- Module 02
Module 02 — REST Resource Modeling and Versioning
- Module 03
Module 03 — GraphQL Schemas, Resolvers, and Mutations
- Module 04
Module 04 — Authentication, Authorization, and Webhooks
- Module 05
Module 05 — Validation, Errors, Pagination, and Rate Limits
- Module 06
Module 06 — Testing, Mocking, and Client Integration
- Module 07
Module 07 — Documentation, SDKs, and Release Operations
- Module 08
Module 08 — Capstone: Design, Document, and Deliver a Versioned API
Practical Training Flow
Learning → Guided Labs → Independent Practice → Industry Project → Capstone → Portfolio → Career Preparation. Practical hours are tracked alongside instructional hours and surfaced on the certificate.
Delivery as HIGAET Practical Training / Experiential Learning.
What you'll be able to do.
- Build versioned REST APIs with pagination, filtering, sorting, and error contracts.
- Design GraphQL schemas with types, resolvers, mutations, and query budgets.
- Develop contract tests and mock servers that keep clients and servers aligned.
- Deploy documented APIs with staging environments and backward-compatible releases.
- Integrate OAuth flows, API keys, and webhook receivers into client systems.
- Evaluate API reliability with latency budgets, tracing, and usage dashboards.
- Secure APIs with scopes, rotation policies, validation, and abuse controls.
- Automate linting, breaking-change detection, and client SDK generation.
You will build.
Every project ships as HIGAET Practical Training / Experiential Learning — portfolio-ready work, not exercises.
- Project 01
Versioned REST API with pagination and error contracts
- Project 02
GraphQL schema with resolvers and query budgets
- Project 03
Contract test suite with mock servers
- Capstone
Documented staged API with backward-compatible release
Speak the language first.
- REST resource design
- Organizing endpoints around named resources with consistent URLs and HTTP methods for reading and changing data.
- Pagination, filtering, and sorting
- Query options that let clients request data in pages and order or narrow results instead of fetching everything.
- Error contracts
- A standard error shape with status, code, and message so clients can handle failures predictably.
- GraphQL types and resolvers
- A typed schema describing available data plus functions that fetch each field when a query asks for it.
- Mutations and query budgets
- Controlled write operations plus limits on query depth and cost so one request cannot overload the server.
- Contract tests and mock servers
- Shared examples and fake servers that check clients and servers agree on request and response shapes.
- Authentication and rate limiting
- Identity checks plus per-client request caps that protect the API from misuse and overload.
- Versioning and staging releases
- Numbered API versions tested in a staging environment so changes ship without breaking existing clients.
- API documentation
- Clear reference pages with examples and error cases so developers can integrate without guessing.
Fix, check, and go deeper.
Troubleshooting & common mistakes
Clients break when response fields change
Restore backward compatibility, version the change, and add a contract test covering the old field shape.
GraphQL queries time out or fetch too much
Set depth and cost limits, require pagination on list fields, and check resolver batching for repeated lookups.
Mocks and production responses disagree
Regenerate mocks from the current schema, add a contract test per endpoint, and run it before release.
Legitimate clients hit rate limits
Review quota rules per key and endpoint, return limit headers, and adjust tiers for expected usage patterns.
Staging passes but production clients see errors
Diff staging and production configuration and data, then replay failing requests against staging with production-like data.
Before you move on, you should be able to
- Build versioned REST APIs with pagination, filtering, sorting, and error contracts
- Design GraphQL schemas with types, resolvers, mutations, and query budgets
- Build contract tests and mock servers that keep clients and servers aligned
- Deploy documented APIs with staging environments and backward-compatible releases
- Explain authentication and rate-limiting choices for API operations
- Evaluate versioning trade-offs when introducing breaking changes
- Design an API release plan covering docs, staging, and compatibility checks
Start your application.
Share a few details and a HIGAET advisor will reach out within one business day with next steps.
Common questions
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