The latest articles on DEV Community by Darshan Modi (@darshanmodi07). https://dev.to/darshanmodi07 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4156518%2F705b4dc9-a54d-4772-9015-aafcba3c74e0.jpg https://dev.to/darshanmodi07 en Darshan Modi Fri, 02 Oct 2026 06:37:36 +0000 https://dev.to/darshanmodi07/what-actually-happens-when-an-api-request-hits-your-backend-3n5o https://dev.to/darshanmodi07/what-actually-happens-when-an-api-request-hits-your-backend-3n5o <p>Ever wondered what happens after you click <strong>"Send"</strong> on an API request?</p> <p>A typical backend request goes through these stages:</p> <p>Client<br> ↓<br> HTTP Request<br> ↓<br> Middleware<br> ↓<br> Parsing<br> ↓<br> Validation<br> ↓<br> Authentication<br> ↓<br> Authorization<br> ↓<br> Business Logic<br> ↓<br> Database<br> ↓<br> HTTP Response<br> ↓<br> Client</p> <p>Each stage has a different responsibility.</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Parsing</strong> → Understand the incoming data</li> <li> <strong>Validation</strong> → Check whether the data is valid</li> <li> <strong>Authentication</strong> → Who are you?</li> <li> <strong>Authorization</strong> → Are you allowed to do this?</li> <li> <strong>Business Logic</strong> → What should the application do?</li> <li> <strong>Database</strong> → Store or retrieve data</li> <li> <strong>Response</strong> → Send the result back to the client</li> </ul> <p>Understanding this flow helped me stop thinking of an API as just a route and start seeing it as a complete request lifecycle.</p> <p>That's the foundation I'm building as I learn backend engineering. 🚀</p> <h1> backend #javascript #nodejs #webdev </h1> api architecture backend softwareengineering