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# API = Some REST and HTTP, right? RIGHT?!


- **Event:** World Congress 2026 North America

## Description

Let's be honest: many of our so-called "REST" APIs aren't REST. They're just JSON-RPC over HTTP, with versioning challenges, brittle integrations, clumsy error handling, and a maintenance burden we all know too well.

Let's do something about this! We’ll go straight to the patterns that matter in production, tackling the real-world challenges head-on: building evolvable versioning strategies, designing sane error responses, providing clear API contracts, and demystifying the practical use of hypermedia (HATEOAS).

You'll leave with practical, battle-tested approaches for building APIs that are maintainable and scalable. We'll also discuss when to use REST and when alternatives like GraphQL or gRPC are a better tool for the job. All demos use Jakarta EE and MicroProfile, but the patterns can be applied to any modern web stack of your choosing.

## Speaker

### [Rustam Mehmandarov](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@rustam-mehmandarov)

Passionate computer scientist


## Related talks at this congress

- [Designing APIs That Survive AI Agents at Scale](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1714-designing-apis-that) — Phani Pendurthi
- [From Guesswork to Governance: Data Contracts Bring API Discipline to Apache Kafka](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1740-from-guesswork-to) — Sandon Jacobs
- [Reinventing Testing Practices in the AI Era](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1724-reinventing-testing) — Eric Deandrea
- [Look What Java Can Do Now: Live-Coding a GenAI MCP Server with the JAQ Stack](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1421-look-what-java-can) — Suren Konathala

## Watch remotely

Can’t make it to San José? Watch this session live with Pro. You also get:

- All full videos, bookmarks, and playlists
- World Congress livestreams

[See pricing](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/pricing)

## Links

- [Get tickets](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress-north-america/tickets)