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Subha Harini
Subha Harini

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🎯 From College to Career: My Journey with Postman and APIs

Hi everyone! 👋
I’m Subha, a recent Computer Science graduate who is passionate about building full-stack web applications. As I transitioned from college to career-building, I realized that one of the most important skills developers need today is a strong understanding of APIs.

That's when I discovered the Postman Student Expert program, which gave me hands-on experience and confidence working with APIs in real-world scenarios.

🎯 Why I Decided to Learn Postman
In every project I worked on — whether it was connecting to a weather API or storing user data — APIs played a critical role. But testing and understanding them wasn’t always easy.

Postman helped me:

  • Send and test HTTP requests (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
  • Work with query and path parameters
  • Use environment and collection variables to simplify workflows
  • Automate API tests with JavaScript scripts
  • Add authentication using API Keys
  • Organize requests into reusable, shareable collections

🧪 What I Did During the Skill Check
In the Postman Student Expert program, I built a mock project using the Postman Echo API where I:

  • Made a POST request to simulate booking a movie
  • Added a query parameter movieName with my favorite film
  • Sent a JSON body with the actor’s name
  • Used API Key authorization
  • Wrote a Test Script to automatically store the actor’s name as a collection variable

Here’s a glimpse of the script I used:

let res = pm.response.json();
pm.collectionVariables.set("favoriteActor", res.json.actorName);

It was exciting to learn how everything — request, body, headers, auth, and scripts — worked together in one clean workflow.

📝 My Personal Notes
While learning, I also created detailed notes on:

  • What APIs are and how they’re used in the real world
  • Types of APIs (REST, GraphQL, etc.)
  • Status codes (200 OK, 404 Not Found, etc.)
  • Variables and scopes in Postman
  • Query parameters vs. path variables
  • Authorization methods like API Keys and OAuth

📄 These notes helped me understand not just the how but also the why of API design and testing.

🎓 From Student Expert to Confident Developer
Even though I’ve now graduated, I continue to use Postman in my projects. For example, I’m currently building a smart ingredient checker app where APIs help scan, analyze, and compare product details in real time.

What I love most about Postman is that it's not just for backend developers — it's for anyone building modern apps.

🧡 Thank You, Postman
The Student Expert program was an incredible learning opportunity — it helped me improve my technical skills and build confidence for job interviews and real-world projects.

📢 Want to Become a Student Expert Too?
Here’s the official link to apply:
👉 https://www.postman.com/student-program/student-expert/

And if you’re already a graduate like me — don’t worry. You can still contribute to the Postman community by sharing your journey and applying for the Postman Community Contribution Program.

🎓 My Badge
I earned my official Postman Student Expert badge!

📜 Click here to view my badge on Badgr

🙌 Let’s Connect
💬 Have questions about APIs or Postman? Leave a comment!
🧠 Want to read more content like this? Follow me on Dev.to

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