API Design Best Practices

## Why API Design Matters

An API is a contract between your system and the developers who consume it. A poorly designed API leads to frustration, bugs, and increased support costs. A well-designed API is intuitive, predictable, and easy to integrate.

### RESTful Principles

When designing REST APIs, stick to standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) and use nouns, not verbs, for your endpoints.
* **Good**: `/users`, `/users/123/orders`
* **Bad**: `/getUsers`, `/createNewOrder`

### Versioning Your APIs

APIs evolve. Always version your API from day one. Whether you include the version in the URL (`/api/v1/users`) or use a custom header (`Accept: application/vnd.myapi.v1+json`), having a clear versioning strategy ensures you don't break existing clients when making changes.

### Meaningful Error Handling

Don't just return a 500 Internal Server Error for everything. Use appropriate HTTP status codes (400 for bad requests, 401 for unauthorized, 404 for not found) and provide a consistent error payload that tells the developer exactly what went wrong and how to fix it.