API Introduction #techfornontech

#lesson1

Technology has become an integral part of every business. Whether you like it or not, you need to understand technical terms to remain relevant in this fast-changing world. I am starting a series of articles on API (Application Programming Interface) for non-tech users and hence the tag #techfornontech. So let us start.

What is API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface. There are 3 words here and each has its own meaning. Let us break and understand.

• Application: It stands for a software application, for example Swiggy mobile application, Google Maps application etc
• Programming: Everyone knows or heard the word Programming which means writing a logic using a coding language such as Java, C, C++ etc.
• Interface: Dictionary meaning of Interface (as a verb) is to interact.

Let us combine above 3 words' meaning and we can understand purpose of API.

"APIs allow any two applications to interact programmatically" 

We can think of English language as an API where any two human beings (irrespective of their nationality, color, race, height) can interact with each other. The condition is both should understand the API i.e. English language.

A real-life example of API:

1. You order food from Swiggy and agent gets assigned to your order. You start seeing agent's live location on map.
2. The map which gets rendered on Swiggy is a Google Map.
3. This seamless integration between Swiggy and Google Map is possible due to APIs. Swiggy application uses Google APIs to render agent's live location on map.

Points to remember:

• Two systems: APIs are always between two systems/applications.
• Programming Langauge Agnostic: Two applications, written in different programming languages, can seamlessly interact using APIs.
• Fastest Way: API is the fastest way to integrate two systems/applications.

Thanks for reading. See you in the next article.