DEV Community: Miss Mbali

What Are APIs? A Beginner’s Guide for Aspiring Devs

Miss Mbali — Thu, 08 May 2025 07:33:11 +0000

Hey everyone! 👋 I'm Palesa 2lo, a software engineer and tech lead. If you're just starting out in tech or curious about how apps talk to each other, you're in the right place. Today, let’s break down APIs—what they are, why they matter, and how you can test them using Postman.

🧠 What is an API?

API **stands for Application Programming Interface.** Think of it as a waiter in a restaurant—you (the client) make a request, and the API delivers your request to the kitchen (server), then returns the result back to you be it your food or a problem like wrong order(response).
It lets different software systems communicate. For example:
• Checking the weather.
• Instagram uses APIs to post images, fetch user data, and show comments.

🧱 Key Components of an API Request

**
When you interact with an API, these are the parts to pay attention to:

🔗 1. URL (Endpoint)

This is where your request is sent. It usually looks like:

https://api.example.com/users

https://api.example.com/usersUpdate?userid=122

🛠 2. Method Type

Defines the action:
• GET → Retrieve data
• POST → Send new data
• PUT → Update data
• DELETE → Remove data

🧾 3. Headers

These carry metadata. Common ones include:
• Content-Type: application/json
• Authorization: Bearer <>, basic auth, API Key etc

📦 4. Data Format

There are few types of data format in API's, Like query params which will be on the querystring. Example:
Query params

https://api.example.com/usersUpdate?userid=122&name=palesa

Then JSON which I believe is the most common one. Example:

Raw :Json

{
 "name": "Palesa",
 "email": "pp.thulo@gmail.com"
}

Form-url-encoded

var formData = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
    { "username", "palesa" },
    { "password", "passwordIsASecret@6" }
};

There could be more like XML, and many more.

🔐 API Authentication

Most APIs need a key or token to verify who you are. You might get this from platforms like RapidAPI when signing up.

🧪 Testing with Postman

We used Postman to test an API. Here’s what we did:
1 Created a new request
2 Selected GET or POST method
3 Added the endpoint URL
4 Set headers and body (if needed)
5 Clicked Send
6 Saw the response 🎉

Postman is a great way to learn what happens behind the scenes in real-time.

✅ Wrap-Up

So now you know:
• What APIs are
• What parts make up an API request
• How to test an API using Postman
This is just the beginning—APIs are everywhere. And trust me, once you get this, a whole new world opens up.
👩🏽‍💻 Follow me here and on YouTube at Beyond Tech with Mbalz for more beginner-friendly tech content!

Four months later...

Miss Mbali — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:59:39 +0000

Truth is half the time if not all the time, I’m not sure what I am doing.
The first month I was getting familiar with how things are done in the organization, reading the code which I didn’t even understand. Watching tutorials of the system to see what am I gonna be dealing with. I wanted to code sooo bad, I mean I’m hired as a software developer why the hell am I not coding?

I watched the tools they use, visual Studio, asp.net , VB ,C#, Json, APIs, postman ... I took my free time to learn these because ... imposter syndrome was also hitting your girl real hard. I became consistent in learning, asked stupid questions. Yes, I did this to get better at my job, but above everything I did that to get confidence in my work...

I was so nervous that they will see I don’t know what I’m doing and just fire me, so I needed to get better for the time I’m there so that if I do get fired I can still find a job elsewhere, showcase my skills that I learnt the time I was there. I was desperate to learn, I worked everyday, every night, even during weekends. When my team lead couldn’t explain or help cause he deals with a lot, clients and devs, local and international...I’d just ask other team members to help. For this four months I am doing All I can to “breath just above the water”.

The second month we got in pairs, well, I think a team of new people who both are clueless is tough, it’s like sending two blind strangers on a treasure hunt in the woods. Yes, you want to find the treasure but you also want to be the one that finds it, trust is minimal, my team mate and I would work on the same thing like it’s a 400m race, who ever gets there first...not trusting what he said , me not trusting his instinct as well. So... ok bro do what you think is right I’ll do the same, and we will use whatever works.
That’s one thing I learned early ... trust is important in team members. Well, our team leads both helped us with trusting each other...eventually got there.

Later on came, “working from home...”
What a challenge it was at first, but eventually I got to love it, saves money, I mean...jnrs don’t get paid a lot y’all know. So this was great for me financially, no transport money and no lunch money. It was a blessing I didn’t even know I needed, I worked twice as hard, I managed to solve my tasks by myself.. with lil help from my team leads and YouTube and stack Overflow lol ..I have to admit solving a task from stack Overflow makes one feel like a bad ass...that’s senior devs platform.i got to have confidence in my self...and that might not be good enough, but it’s good.

All I have to say is ... four months later...I grew, I adapted and thanks to supportive team and family...I am definitely at a better level of “I don’t know anything”. Team members that will get stuck with me and try to solve a problem, which also they have no idea of, was kind of enough for me. Learning that it’s okay to not know everything but just give your best ‘try’...you might ‘catch’ a big fish;

Morning Catch up

Miss Mbali — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 12:05:24 +0000

Morning "catch up", "Stand up" whatever you call those morning meetings where we have to stand up and tell the whole team our progress...I mean so the first month was very difficult...everyone knew what they were talking about in the meeting, I seemed to be the only one lost and having anxiety all the time when it was time to join in the meeting.
My team leader would ask "Are you okay? aren't you drowning"? Lol he was very patient. I can say that the first month my team was talking chinese and trust me I can speak chinese but I did not understand half of what they were saying in the meeting.
I even started thinking that maybe this job is not cut out for me. I mean...My boss seemed to believe in me...he even said "three months ago I also didn't know anything" well I still felt shitty for not knowing what I was supposed to do. And for what I knew now we were on the more complex level.
Even though the morning stand ups would intimidate me, my team would make so many jokes in the meeting and for that moment id forget where I am, lol...for a minute. My first month when they asked me "So what do you do at work..."My answer would be..."I drink coffee and watch a bunch of videos" but now...When you ask me..."I am a software developer ... " well almost...sometimes...slowly getting there.

I think this time I knocked on the right door...very supportive team. But "catch up meeting" will forever intimidate me...plus the imposter syndrome...eish. Well Until maybe I know what I'm doing.
I generally think that catch up meetings are just plain horrible if you are new on a job, nvm if you a junior.

Challenges of a Junior Developer

Miss Mbali — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 13:03:27 +0000

I think we can all agree on that imposter syndrome hits even the best of the developers, It is just challenging, And the other thing is not knowing what you are supposed to learn first, The fear of asking what you think is "stupid questions", They keep saying there is no stupid question...but is that really true, The fear of pointing out the methods that works for you, because well, I think you should trust your leaders. Methods they use they have been using long before you, And the COVID19 regulations are not making it easy at all. Everyone is working from home, Who is going to mentor you hold your hand and show you.
I sat there the whole day looking at a code written by over 6 different people and thinking...'maybe coding is not for me'.

Luckily I have a good leader, he kept saying "Its okay if you don't understand , I don't expect you to understand everything so quick"."可以慢慢来"。 In my mind I just wanna feel useful. I wanna work. I want to do something, give me something to do, Ask me to change a textbox, a label, ask me to change the color...anything.

I had a talk with my mentor I told him to make use of me, I told him to give me something to do, anything, I said even If I get it wrong its okay just give me something. He did, well...I didn't understand anything, I called him on Teams and we did it together. We changed 3 lines of code but I understood a whole lot more than that.

I realized that if I could sit with this guy when he's doing this I could understand much better, well not just him. The rest of the team...But people are busy with deadlines and some going on leave...Which I understand...but still, I also want to do my own projects soon. Well...Udemy...is family...and YouTube is a friend.

I don't know...But if you can give advise please do. What am I doing wrong? and what can I do different. How else can I better this situation?

Keeping yourself motivated

Miss Mbali — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 23:46:21 +0000

Keeping myself motivated is one of the most difficult things, when I look at my surrounding and my friends how they’ve done well for themselves, and I’m here still struggling to find my first permanent job...I really don’t know what keeps me motivated, to learn, and to keep looking for the job I want.In a country with such a high unemployment rate, I love coding and analyzing, I like seeing a problem and thinking of ways to solve it. Even though I don’t always find the solution I want,But I don’t give up.
Every time I write a code and encounter a problem that I don’t know how to solve I go on google, w3schools stack overflow, geeks and sometimes I don’t know how to implement what I found on my projects because I’m still learning somethings, Then I loose interest...and those negative words comes to mind “programming is not for women” “maybe you should just do something else” ...when I apply for jobs and don’t even get a response...thinking maybe I’m not good enough... I should find something else.

But subconsciously even my mind and heart knows how bad I want this, even though I see only reason for me to give up on this journey, somehow I still find a myself opening my machine and trying again.
Code and code, learn and keep learning, code more and code more. I can see the growth in my code, I clap for myself. When my code can do what I want it to do I smile and say “you did it gal, now on to the next one”.
Maybe hope is what’s keeping me motivated. And hearing all the stories of all of you self taught developers! Knowing I'm part of something big and great! And I always tell myself there will always be someone who knows more than you..learn from them!
Keep learning and keep coding till you get what you want!