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Phil IPS
Phil IPS

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Testing Free API Endpoints with Python

#api #python #testing #tutorial

Testing Free API Endpoints with Python

Learn how to test free public APIs using Python's requests library. No API keys required!

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.8+ installed
  • requests library: pip install requests

Testing JSONPlaceholder API

JSONPlaceholder is a free fake REST API for testing and prototyping.

import requests

# Test GET request
url = "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1"
response = requests.get(url)

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    print(f"Title: {data['title']}")
    print(f"Body: {data['body']}")
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")
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Testing a Free Weather API

OpenWeatherMap offers a free tier for weather data.

import requests

# Free API (no key required for basic usage)
url = "https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast"
params = {
    "latitude": 51.5074,
    "longitude": -0.1278,
    "current_weather": True
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)

if response.status_code == 200:
    weather = response.json()["current_weather"]
    print(f"Temperature: {weather['temperature']}°C")
    print(f"Wind Speed: {weather['windspeed']} km/h")
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")
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Testing Free AI Model via OpenRouter 

import requests
import os

# Using OpenRouter free tier
url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('OPENROUTER_API_KEY')}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
    "model": "google/gemini-2.0-flash-exp:free",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Explain REST APIs in 2 sentences"}]
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)

if response.status_code == 200:
    result = response.json()
    print(result["choices"][0]["message"]["content"])
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.text}")
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Best Practices

  1. Always check status codes - Handle 200, 404, 429, 500 appropriately
  2. Add timeouts - requests.get(url, timeout=10)
  3. Handle rate limits - Implement exponential backoff
  4. Validate responses - Check JSON structure before accessing keys
  5. Use environment variables - Never hardcode API keys

Conclusion

Testing free APIs is a great way to learn API integration without costs. Start with JSONPlaceholder for REST basics, then explore weather, AI, and other free tiers for real-world projects.

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