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ByteBricks.ai
ByteBricks.ai

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Explain API Like I'm Five

We build and sell Data APIs, I want the help of this great community on explaining API service to non developers, business people, and users. How will you explain it?

Top comments (10)

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shameel profile image
Shameel Uddin

Kitchen = Backend
Table/Customer = Frontend
Waiter = API

Waiter (API) takes food from Kitchen (Backend) and serve it to customer's table (Frontend).

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bytebricks profile image
ByteBricks.ai

I like the approach! 😁

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shameel profile image
Shameel Uddin

thanks :D

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simonmartyr profile image
Simon Martyr

One analogy for an API is to compare it to a menu card at a restaurant. When you place an order with the person taking that order. You refer to the menu (the API) to know what you can order (request).
The restaurant (your service) will then attempt to process. Maybe they are out of some ingredients or simply don't have what you asked for and you have to adjust your order (some what like a 400/404 response).
Or they simply make your meal and you receive what you asked for (a 200 response).

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bytebricks profile image
ByteBricks.ai

I like the analogy!
would help me explain this to my family 😂 and maybe we come up with something similar to use for clients 😍

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aliabb01 profile image
Ali

Think of an API as a bridge that can connect software and enable communication between different programs.

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bytebricks profile image
ByteBricks.ai

Appealing! 😍

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rajaerobinson profile image
Rajae Robinson

An API allows one program to ask another program to do something for it, like get data or perform a task.

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dumebii profile image
Dumebi Okolo

Hello 👋
You should add a #discuss tag to this to indicate that you are throwing a question up for discussion.

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bytebricks profile image
ByteBricks.ai

Thanks for your help