The Great API Debate: REST, GraphQL, or gRPC?

Stop letting business logic creep into your frontend. This talk makes a strong case for REST's clean architecture over the hidden dangers of GraphQL.

#1about 4 minutes

Defining developer productivity as the ultimate software metric

Developer productivity, measured by customer satisfaction and future-proof code, is the key metric for building traditional software.

#2about 2 minutes

Using APIs to compartmentalize complexity and enable scalability

APIs act as firewalls between software modules, enabling interoperability and scalability by allowing independent system growth.

#3about 3 minutes

Tracing the evolution of APIs from RPC to GraphQL

The history of APIs shows a progression from low-level RPC and verbose SOAP to structured REST, interactive WebSockets, and modern gRPC and GraphQL.

#4about 3 minutes

Understanding API users and common application use cases

APIs serve various roles like developers and architects across use cases including mobile backends, third-party integrations, and microservices.

#5about 4 minutes

Leveraging APIs as a tool for clean architecture

A well-designed, domain-driven API enforces clean architecture by separating concerns and firewalling business logic from the presentation layer.

#6about 2 minutes

Architectural differences between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC

REST is resource-oriented, GraphQL offers flexible data queries similar to SQL, and gRPC provides a low-level, efficient data serialization format.

#7about 4 minutes

Evaluating the pros and cons of REST, GraphQL, and gRPC

REST offers self-documentation via OpenAPI but struggles with data fetching, while GraphQL is flexible but can break architectural separation, and gRPC is performant but complex to debug.

#8about 1 minute

Case study: Accelerating development with REST and OpenAPI

Using a REST API with OpenAPI allows for automatic client generation, which significantly speeds up front-end development for Django applications.

#9about 2 minutes

Choosing the right API for different project needs

Select REST for simple CRUD operations, consider GraphQL for complex front-end data needs, and use gRPC for high-performance microservices.

#10about 2 minutes

Q&A: GraphQL bombs and gRPC for microservices

The best defense against recursive GraphQL queries is a solid architecture, and gRPC is recommended for microservices due to its performance and control.