What Is an API?
An API is a defined way for one program to ask another for something. Once you can read one request, you can read most of them.
Beginner7 min readDaksh BathlaDEFINITIONDevelopment
API
Application Programming Interface
A published set of requests one program will accept from another, and the responses it gives back. It defines what you can ask for without exposing how it's done.
EXAMPLE
A payment provider's API lets your code send an amount and a card token, and receive back whether the charge succeeded. You never see their systems.
WHY IT MATTERS
Almost every product is assembled from other people's APIs, payments, email, maps, models. Reading one is a basic literacy for building anything.