Absolutely!

Let’s go step by step, part by part, and I’ll provide detailed answers
with examples where applicable.

PART 1: REST Architecture & Design Principles

1. What are the core principles of RESTful architecture?

The core principles of REST (Representational State Transfer) include: -

Statelessness: Each request contains all the information needed to process it. The
server does not store any session state. - Client-Server Separation: The client and
server are independent. Clients handle UI, while servers manage business logic. -
Uniform Interface: A consistent way to access and manipulate resources, typically
via HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). - Cacheability: Responses must
define if they are cacheable to improve performance. - Layered System: Architecture
can be composed of layers (e.g., proxy, load balancer) that do not affect the client-
server interaction. - Code on Demand (optional): Servers can return executable
code (like JavaScript), although rarely used.

2. How does REST differ from RPC or SOAP in terms of architectural style?

Aspect REST RPC SOAP

Protocol Typically HTTP HTTP, TCP HTTP, SMTP, others

Resource- Function/method- Message-based with

Interface
oriented (nouns) based (verbs) strict schema

Heavy WS-*
Lightweight and Tight coupling to
Flexibility standards, tight
loosely coupled method signatures
coupling

High due to Moderate, often

Scalability Lower scalability
statelessness slower

HTTP verbs, URI, XML, WSDL, SOAP

Standards Custom over HTTP
status codes envelope

Example:
- REST: GET /customers/123 - RPC: getCustomer(123)

3. Can you explain the concept of resource modeling in REST?

Resource modeling is identifying entities in your domain as resources and mapping

them to URIs.

Example:

Domain: E-commerce
Resources: Customer, Order, Product
URIs:
- /customers
- /customers/{id}/orders
- /products

Each resource should be addressable, and operations should be carried out via
HTTP methods: - GET /products/101 → Fetch product - POST /orders → Create new order

4. What are the constraints of REST and why are they important?

REST constraints ensure the scalability, performance, and modifiability of

services: - Statelessness – simplifies server design and improves scalability. - Client-
Server Separation – allows independent evolution. - Uniform Interface – simplifies
architecture. - Cacheability – enhances performance. - Layered System – adds
scalability, security. - Code on Demand (optional) – extensibility.

Ignoring these constraints often leads to tightly coupled systems and scalability
bottlenecks.

5. How do you ensure statelessness in a REST API?

Don’t store session info on the server (no server-side sessions).

Each request must contain authorization headers, context, or tokens.
Use JWT (JSON Web Tokens) or OAuth2 tokens to carry user identity.

Example:

GET /orders HTTP/1.1

Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOi...

6. How do you define granularity in RESTful resources?

Granularity defines how much data or functionality is exposed per endpoint.

Fine-grained APIs: Separate endpoints for sub-resources.

/users/123/addresses
/users/123/orders
Coarse-grained APIs: Return combined representations.
/users/123/details (includes user info + orders + address)

Best practice: Start with fine-grained, offer coarse-grained via optional

parameters or aggregation APIs when needed.

7. What are the trade-offs between fine-grained vs coarse-grained REST APIs?

Aspect Fine-Grained Coarse-Grained

Payload Size Small Large (can be optimized)

Flexibility More flexible, reusable Less flexible

Client
Simplicity More calls, client assembles One call, less client work
 More latency (multiple Better performance for UI
Performance
requests) needs

Example: A mobile app might prefer coarse-grained for performance, while

microservices favor fine-grained for reuse.

8. How do you design REST APIs for evolving business domains?

Use versioning (URI or headers).

Keep resources loosely coupled.
Favor optional fields instead of breaking changes.
Avoid tightly coupled response contracts.
Design with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) in mind to map business
aggregates to resources.

9. What strategies do you use to handle relationships between resources (e.g.,

nested resources)?

Embedded (inline) sub-resources:

/orders/123 includes customer info inside response.
Linked sub-resources:
/orders/123 contains link to /customers/456
Nested URIs:
/customers/456/orders/123

Use HATEOAS where applicable for navigation.

10. How would you handle versioning in REST APIs? What are the pros and
cons of each approach?

Approach Example Pros Cons

URI Easy to Breaks URI

/v1/orders
versioning understand permanence

Harder for
Header Accept:
Clean URIs caching,
versioning application/vnd.orders.v1+json
discovery

Query Simple to Not standard

/orders?version=1
parameter implement practice

Complex
Content
Accept headers Flexible client-side
negotiation
handling

Best practice: Use URI versioning for public APIs; use header-based for internal
APIs when needed.
PART 2: API Design Best Practices

11. What is your approach to designing a REST API from scratch?

Here’s a step-by-step approach:

1. Understand the domain — Identify key business entities (e.g., Customer,

Product).
2. Model resources — Map domain objects to resources.
3. Define resource URIs — Use nouns, not verbs (e.g., /customers, /orders/{id}).
4. Design operations using HTTP methods:
GET – Retrieve resource(s)
POST – Create new resource
PUT – Full update
PATCH – Partial update
DELETE – Remove resource
5. Design request/response payloads — Use JSON, align with domain model.
6. Define error response format and codes
7. Add filtering, pagination, sorting support
8. Secure the API (OAuth2, JWT, HTTPS)
9. Document via OpenAPI/Swagger
10. Test: unit, contract, and integration tests

12. How do you handle pagination, filtering, and sorting in REST APIs?

Pagination (for large lists):

GET /products?page=2&limit=20

Response:

{
"data": [...],
"pagination": {
"page": 2,
"limit": 20,
"total": 300,
"pages": 15
}
}

Filtering:

GET /products?category=books&price_lt=50

Sorting:

GET /products?sort=price,-rating

(ascending by price, descending by rating)

Standardization improves API reusability and client-side consistency.

13. What conventions do you follow for naming endpoints and resources?

Use nouns, not verbs.

Plural form for collections: /orders, /products
Sub-resources: /customers/{id}/orders
 Use hyphens (-) in URLs, not underscores.
Use query parameters for filtering/search:
/products?category=books
Avoid deeply nested resources beyond 2 levels.

Bad: /getCustomerDetails Good: /customers/{id}

14. What are common REST anti-patterns you’ve seen, and how do you avoid
them?

Anti-pattern Better Practice

Verbs in URIs (/getUser) Use nouns (/users/{id})

Too many nested resources Flatten or use query links

Using only POST for all operations Use correct HTTP verbs

Ignoring status codes Use standardized HTTP status codes

Leaking internal IDs/fields Use abstraction and data shaping

15. How do you ensure consistency in API response formats across large
systems?

Define standard response schema (envelope format):

{
"data": {...},
"errors": [],
"meta": {...}
}

Enforce contract via OpenAPI schemas

Use shared libraries (in Java, TypeScript, etc.) across microservices
Standardize field naming (camelCase or snake_case)

16. When would you use HTTP methods like PATCH vs PUT?

PUT: Full replacement of the resource.

PATCH: Partial update of the resource.

Example:

PUT /users/123
{
"name": "Alice",
"email": "[email protected]"
}

PATCH /users/123
{
"email": "[email protected]"
}

Best Practice: Prefer PATCH when updating partial fields to reduce data transfer
and avoid accidental overwrites.

17. What are your thoughts on HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of

Application State)?

It allows dynamic discovery of actions from responses via hyperlinks.

Useful in hypermedia-driven systems or loosely coupled clients.
Example:

{
"id": 123,
"name": "Alice",
"_links": {
"self": { "href": "/users/123" },
"orders": { "href": "/users/123/orders" }
}
}

Reality: Often avoided in modern REST due to complexity; simple clients prefer static
contracts.

18. How would you implement partial resource updates efficiently?

Use HTTP PATCH with:

JSON Patch (application/json-patch+json)
JSON Merge Patch (application/merge-patch+json)

Example (Merge Patch):

PATCH /users/123
Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json

{
"email": "[email protected]"
}

Avoid sending large payloads for small changes.

19. How do you handle large file uploads/downloads in a RESTful way?

Uploads:
Use multipart/form-data
Support pre-signed URLs with object stores (S3-style):
1. Client requests upload URL
2. Server returns secure URL
3. Client uploads directly
Downloads:
Use streaming APIs
Set Content-Disposition: attachment for downloading files

20. How do you document REST APIs effectively (e.g., Swagger/OpenAPI)?

Use OpenAPI (Swagger) to define:

 Endpoints
Methods
Request/response schema
Error codes

Tools: - Swagger UI - Redoc - Postman Collections - API Blueprint (less common)

Best Practice: - Automate API docs generation from annotations (e.g., SpringDoc for
Java). - Version API docs along with API itself.

PART 3: Security Considerations in REST APIs

21. How do you secure REST APIs in production?

Security is multi-layered. Key practices include:

Authentication & Authorization

Transport Layer Security (TLS/HTTPS)
Input validation & sanitization
API Gateway enforcement
Rate limiting/throttling
Audit logging

Tech stack examples: - OAuth2/JWT for auth - HTTPS for transport - OWASP Top 10
mitigation - Identity federation (SSO, LDAP integration)

22. What are common security risks in REST and how do you mitigate them?

Risk Mitigation Strategy

Input validation,
Injection (SQL, JSON, etc.)
parameterized queries

Strong token-based auth

Broken Auth
(OAuth2)

Data encryption, field-level

Sensitive Data Exposure
redaction

CSRF (less common in REST) Stateless design, CSRF tokens

API Gateway with rate

Rate abuse
limiting

Implement RBAC/ABAC
Broken Object Level Authorization
properly

Use OWASP API Security Top 10 as a guideline.

23. How do you handle authentication and authorization in REST APIs?

Authentication: Verify who the user is.

Use OAuth2, JWT, Basic Auth (only for internal/testing).
Authorization: What actions the user is allowed to do.
Use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) or Attribute-Based (ABAC).

Example:

Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsIn...

JWT payload:

{
"sub": "user123",
"roles": ["admin"]
}

Then, the server checks permissions based on roles/claims.

24. What is the role of OAuth 2.0 in RESTful API security?

OAuth 2.0 is a delegated authorization protocol — allows clients to access user

resources without sharing credentials.

Flows: - Authorization Code Flow – Most secure (for web/mobile apps). - Client
Credentials Flow – For machine-to-machine APIs. - Implicit Flow – Deprecated
(used in old SPAs). - Device Flow – For devices like TVs.

OAuth separates identity provider from the API layer.

25. How would you design REST APIs to prevent injection and CSRF attacks?

Injection Prevention:
Validate all input (use schemas)
Sanitize inputs (XSS protection)
Use prepared statements
CSRF (less common in REST):
Use stateless APIs (no session cookies)
Use JWT or custom headers (CSRF-safe)
Same-origin policies + SameSite cookies if applicable

Pro tip: Never rely solely on client-side validation.

26. What is your approach to securing sensitive data in transit and at rest?

In Transit:
Enforce HTTPS (TLS 1.2 or 1.3)
Reject HTTP (redirect or block)
Secure headers: Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options
At Rest:
Encrypt databases (AES-256)
Tokenize/Pseudonymize PII
Encrypt secrets and credentials using vaults (e.g., HashiCorp Vault, AWS
KMS)

Also, perform regular penetration testing and vulnerability scans.

PART 4: Performance, Scalability & Reliability in REST APIs

27. How do you make REST APIs scalable in large enterprise environments?

Key strategies include:

Stateless architecture – Makes horizontal scaling easy.

Load balancing – Distribute traffic across instances.
Caching – Reduce load on backend systems.
Database sharding/replication – Scale storage layer.
Asynchronous processing – Offload long-running operations.
API Gateway – Acts as a central entry point for traffic control.

Architecture example:

Client → API Gateway → Load Balancer → Stateless REST Services → Scalable DB

28. What strategies do you use for caching in RESTful services?

Caching improves latency and reduces backend load.

HTTP Cache Headers:

Cache-Control, ETag, Expires, Last-Modified
Client-side caching:
Browsers/apps cache based on HTTP headers
Reverse proxy caching:
Nginx/Varnish/CDNs
Application-level caching:
Redis, Memcached for frequent queries

Example:

Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600

ETag: "abc123"

Client sends:

If-None-Match: "abc123"

Server returns 304 Not Modified if unchanged.

29. How do you deal with rate limiting and throttling in REST APIs?

Rate Limiting: Controls how many requests a client can make in a time
window.
Throttling: Slows down requests after a threshold is hit instead of blocking.

Implement via API Gateway: - Per API key or user/IP - Sliding window or token
bucket algorithm - Response headers:

X-RateLimit-Limit: 1000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 250
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1671602933

Send 429 Too Many Requests if exceeded.

30. How do you design APIs to support high-availability and failover?

Deploy across multiple availability zones or regions

Use load balancers and health checks
Database replication and failover mechanisms
Circuit breakers and retries in client SDKs
Graceful degradation of services

Example: - If DB goes down, serve read-only cache data until recovery.

31. How do you ensure fault tolerance in REST-based distributed systems?

Retry policies: For transient failures (exponential backoff)

Circuit breakers: Prevent cascading failures
Timeouts: Set timeouts for API dependencies
Fallbacks: Return cached data or default response
Dead-letter queues (DLQs) for async failures

Tools: Resilience4j, Hystrix, Spring Retry

32. What is your experience with asynchronous REST APIs and when do you
use them?

Used for long-running or non-blocking tasks: - Email sending - Report generation

- Payment processing

Approaches: - Callback mechanism: - Client receives task ID, polls or waits for
webhook - Polling: - GET /tasks/{id}/status - Webhooks: - Notify client when work is
done

Example flow: 1. POST /reports → 202 Accepted + taskId 2. GET /tasks/{taskId}/status →

Completed

PART 5: Error Handling & Monitoring in REST APIs

33. What is your approach to error handling in REST APIs?

A good API should provide clear, consistent, and actionable error responses.

Standard structure:

{
"error": {
"code": "USER_NOT_FOUND",
"message": "User with ID 123 not found",
"details": "The user may have been deleted or the ID is invalid"
}
}

Use appropriate HTTP status codes

Include machine-readable error codes for client logic
Include user-friendly messages

34. How do you structure error responses (e.g., status codes, custom error
objects)?

Typical pattern:

{
"timestamp": "2025-03-20T10:00:00Z",
"status": 404,
"error": "Not Found",
"code": "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND",
"message": "User not found",
"path": "/users/123"
}

Add error code for categorization (e.g., USER_NOT_FOUND)

Include timestamp and request path for traceability
Consider including correlation ID for observability across systems

35. What is your opinion on standard HTTP status codes vs business-specific

error codes?

Use HTTP status codes for protocol-level error handling: - 200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No
Content - 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found - 500 Internal
Server Error

Use business-specific error codes inside the payload for client-specific logic.

Example:

HTTP 400 Bad Request

{
"code": "EMAIL_ALREADY_EXISTS",
"message": "This email is already in use."
}

This gives both standard protocol understanding and application-specific

semantics.

36. How do you monitor REST API performance in real-time?

Monitoring layers: - Infrastructure-level: CPU, memory, network (Prometheus,

Grafana) - Application-level: - Latency, error rates, throughput (APM tools like New
Relic, Datadog) - API-level metrics: - Response time per endpoint - Status code
breakdown (2xx, 4xx, 5xx) - Slowest endpoints - Request rate per user/client

Example tools: - Prometheus + Grafana - ELK Stack (ElasticSearch, Logstash,

Kibana) - OpenTelemetry

37. What tools do you use for observability, logging, tracing, and alerting in
RESTful systems?

Aspect Tools / Practices

Logging ELK stack, Fluentd, Loki, Winston (Node)

Tracing Jaeger, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry

 Metrics Prometheus, Datadog, New Relic, Grafana

Alerting Grafana Alerting, PagerDuty, Opsgenie

Good practice: - Implement correlation IDs: - X-Correlation-ID: abc123 in headers -

Propagate this ID across services to trace requests

PART 6: Integration & Ecosystem

38. How do REST APIs integrate with other microservices or systems?

REST APIs typically serve as the communication layer between services.

Integration strategies: - Direct RESTful communication between services -

Internal services communicate via HTTP calls - Asynchronous messaging (when
REST is too synchronous or slow) - Use message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ) - API
Gateways: - Aggregate requests - Enforce security, throttling, routing - Service
Mesh (e.g., Istio): - Manages service-to-service traffic, retries, and observability

Example: A Payment Service might call Customer Service via REST:

POST /payments
→ Internally calls:
GET /customers/{id}

39. What are the challenges of API orchestration vs choreography in REST?

Aspect Orchestration Choreography

Centralized (one service Decentralized (each service

Control flow
coordinates) acts independently)

Complexity Easier to manage in one place Harder to trace/debug

Loose coupling, better for

Flexibility Tight coupling
scaling

BPMN engines, workflow

Tools Events, messaging brokers
orchestrators

REST is typically orchestration-friendly, but for complex workflows, event-driven

choreography can offer better decoupling.

40. How do you manage contracts between REST services in a microservices

ecosystem?

Managing API contracts is critical for reducing integration risk.

Best practices: - Use OpenAPI specifications for contracts - Validate
requests/responses against schemas - Use Consumer-Driven Contract Testing
(CDCT): - Tools: Pact, Spring Cloud Contract

Example: - A consumer defines expected schema - Provider verifies contract via CI

tests - Contract tests catch breaking changes early

41. Have you used API gateways? What are their benefits and design
considerations?

Yes — API Gateways (e.g., Kong, Apigee, AWS API Gateway, NGINX) act as a
proxy layer between clients and services.

Benefits: - Centralized authentication/authorization - Rate limiting, throttling -

Request routing, API versioning - Monitoring, logging - Transformations
(headers, payloads)

Design considerations: - Avoid making it a bottleneck - Keep business logic out of

the gateway - Secure the gateway itself

42. What’s your approach to backward compatibility in enterprise REST APIs?

Golden rule: Never break existing clients.

Techniques: - Additive changes only (add fields, don’t remove or rename) - API
versioning (e.g., /v1/products) - Graceful deprecation policy - Mark endpoints as
deprecated - Monitor usage metrics before removal - Use feature flags for
introducing behavioral changes - Contract testing to validate impact on consumers

PART 7: DevOps & CI/CD for REST APIs

43. How do you manage API lifecycle (design, deployment, deprecation)?

Managing the API lifecycle is essential in large, evolving systems.

Stages of the API lifecycle: 1. Design – Use OpenAPI/Swagger, align with business
requirements. 2. Development – Version-controlled code and spec. 3. Testing – Unit,
integration, contract, performance testing. 4. Deployment – Through CI/CD
pipelines. 5. Monitoring & Support – API metrics, logging, incident management. 6.
Deprecation – Notify consumers, monitor usage, gradually sunset old versions.

Best Practices: - Use API gateways to support multiple versions. - Provide API
changelogs and migration guides. - Tag endpoints as deprecated in OpenAPI docs
before removal.

44. How do you integrate REST APIs into CI/CD pipelines?

A well-structured CI/CD pipeline automates build, test, and deployment of REST APIs.

Typical steps in pipeline: 1. Build: Compile and run linters, static code analysis. 2.
Unit tests: Verify logic. 3. Contract testing: Ensure compatibility with consumers.
4. Integration tests: Test APIs with dependent systems. 5. Security scans: (e.g.,
OWASP checks, Snyk, Checkmarx) 6. Generate artifacts: API spec, Docker images.
7. Deploy to staging → run smoke tests → promote to production
Tools: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, ArgoCD

45. What’s your strategy for managing API environments

(dev/test/stage/prod)?

Best practices: - Use separate configurations (e.g., environment variables, secrets

managers) - Each environment should be isolated and immutable - Apply
infrastructure-as-code (IaC) for consistent setup (e.g., Terraform, Helm) -
Automate environment provisioning - Use feature toggles to test new features in
non-prod

Also, tag metrics and logs by environment for analysis.

46. How do you test REST APIs at unit, integration, and contract levels?

Test Type What It Validates Tools

Unit Tests Internal logic, services JUnit, Jest, Mocha

REST endpoints + DB + Postman, RestAssured,

Integration Tests
service logic Supertest

Consumer-provider Pact, Spring Cloud

Contract Tests
compatibility Contract

End-to-End Tests Full user journey simulation Cypress, Selenium

Load/Performance Scalability under load JMeter, Gatling, Artillery

Example contract test (Pact): - Consumer defines expected request/response -

Provider verifies using pact verification during CI

Perfect! Let’s finish strong with the final section:

PART 8: Strategic & Business Considerations

47. How do you align REST API design with business domain modeling
(DDD)?

By applying Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles to API design, we ensure that

APIs reflect real business language and use cases.

Strategies: - Use ubiquitous language: Names of resources match domain

concepts. - Align APIs with bounded contexts: Each service owns a domain
boundary. - Avoid leaking internal models—design APIs around aggregates, not
database tables. - Encapsulate business rules within API contracts.

Example: Instead of exposing /products directly tied to DB schema, define:

/catalog/products → reflects domain, not internal tables

48. How do you design APIs to be product-oriented and reusable?

A product mindset means designing APIs as standalone, value-delivering

components:

Self-contained and discoverable (good documentation, examples).

Provide reusable, generic contracts (e.g., /events, /documents used by many
teams).
Focus on use-case driven endpoints, not just CRUD.
Consider multi-tenant design if reused across orgs.
Decouple business logic from client-specific needs—use query parameters,
filters, or extensions for customization.

49. What metrics do you track to measure REST API adoption and success?

Both technical and business metrics are important.

Type Examples

Adoption Active consumers, endpoints hit

Usage trends Daily/monthly active calls per API

Latency & Errors P95/P99 response times, 4xx/5xx rates

Success rate Success/failure ratio per endpoint

Deprecation impact Usage of deprecated APIs

Consumer feedback Developer NPS, support tickets

Tools: API analytics platforms (Apigee, Kong, Postman Monitoring, New Relic)

50. How do you manage API governance and standardization across teams in
a large organization?

API Governance ensures consistency, quality, and alignment across teams.

Best practices: - Define API Design Guidelines: - Naming conventions, status

codes, response format, pagination, error structure, etc. - Use API linting tools (e.g.,
Spectral) during development. - Run API review boards for major APIs or changes. -
Encourage shared tooling: reusable libraries, API templates, CI validation. - Use API
portals/catalogs to publish, discover, and manage APIs.

Maturity model helps teams grow from ad-hoc design to well-governed practices.
Mock Interview Scenario 1: API Gateway Design in a Multi-
Region Setup

Context Recap: You’re designing a multi-region REST API deployment for

high availability, low latency, and compliance with local regulations (e.g.,
GDPR). Questions: - How would you architect your REST API layer for this?
- What role would an API Gateway play in this architecture? - How would
you manage routing, caching, and versioning across regions? - How do you
handle data residency requirements (e.g., EU data must not leave EU)? —

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Global API Gateway Strategy:

Deploy regional API Gateways (e.g., AWS API Gateway, Apigee, Kong)
near the clients to reduce latency.
Use Geo DNS or Anycast IPs to route clients to the nearest gateway.
2. Routing and Failover:
Primary and secondary region setup per client.
If one region fails, fallback to another using health checks + intelligent DNS
or routing policies.
3. Caching Strategy:
Use edge caching/CDNs (e.g., CloudFront, Fastly) for static content and
read-heavy APIs.
Respect Cache-Control and ETag headers for validation.
4. Version Management:
APIs are versioned region-agnostically (e.g., /v1/products works in all
regions).
Use blue-green deployments or canary releases per region.
5. Data Residency Compliance (e.g., GDPR):
Deploy regional data stores (e.g., EU data → EU DB).
Ensure API gateways route API requests only to region-local
services/databases.
Add data classification tags and field-level encryption for sensitive
fields (e.g., PII).
6. Monitoring and Observability:
Centralized metrics collection (via Prometheus/Grafana or Datadog),
tagged by region.
Correlation IDs to trace multi-region requests.

Scenario 2: Legacy Monolith to Microservices via REST APIs

Context: You’re leading an initiative to modernize a large monolithic

application. The business wants a phased migration to microservices, and
REST APIs will be the integration glue.

Questions: - How do you break down the monolith into microservices from
a REST perspective? - How do you handle shared database access during
transition? - How will REST API contracts be maintained to avoid client
breakage? - What strategy would you use to ensure backward compatibility?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Breaking Down the Monolith (from a REST perspective):

Start by identifying bounded contexts and domains using Domain-Driven
Design (DDD).
 Example: In an e-commerce monolith, domains like Catalog, Orders,
Customers, Payments can be identified.
Design REST APIs around business capabilities, not database tables.
E.g., GET /orders, POST /products — each owned by a specific
microservice.
Follow the “Strangler Pattern”:
New functionality is built as microservices.
Legacy endpoints remain in monolith temporarily.
An API gateway routes requests to either monolith or new services.
2. Handling Shared Database Access (Transition Period):
In the interim phase, read-only access to shared DB may be acceptable
(though not ideal).
Use data replication, event sourcing, or change data capture (CDC) to
slowly migrate data.
Eventually, each service should own its own schema and persistence
layer.
Follow Database-per-service principle long-term to ensure proper
decoupling.
3. Maintaining REST API Contracts to Avoid Client Breakage:
Introduce API facades/adapters to keep the existing contract intact,
even as internal services change.
This avoids forcing frontends or third-party clients to change during
migration.
Apply contract-first API development (OpenAPI-driven) to lock down
interfaces.
Perform automated regression and contract tests to catch breaking
changes early.
4. Backward Compatibility Strategy:
Additive changes only: never remove fields or change response
structures.
Introduce API versioning — URI versioning (/v2/orders) or header-based
(Accept: application/vnd.orders.v2+json).
Apply graceful deprecation:
Mark endpoints as deprecated in documentation and contracts.
Monitor usage and notify consumers before sunset.
Provide migration guides and support plans for consumers.

Scenario 3: Designing Public APIs for a Developer Ecosystem

Context: Your company wants to expose a public REST API to enable third-
party developers to build integrations. You’ll lead API design, security, and
developer enablement.

Questions: - What are the key considerations for designing public-facing

APIs? - How do you manage security and rate limiting? - How do you ensure
self-service onboarding for developers? - What tools do you recommend for
API documentation and discovery?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Key Considerations for Public APIs:

Stability and backward compatibility are paramount — changes must
not break consumers.
Design APIs around real use cases, not internal models.
Apply standardized naming, pagination, error formats, and clear status
codes.
Treat the API as a product — versioned, documented, monitored, and
 governed.
2. Security and Rate Limiting:
Use OAuth2.0 Authorization Code Flow for user-based access, Client
Credentials Flow for app-to-app scenarios.
Protect APIs with TLS, IP whitelisting, and scopes/roles.
Enforce rate limits per client or tier (e.g., free vs premium plans).
Include 429 Too Many Requests and rate-limit headers in responses.
Use API keys or developer registration process to track and authorize
consumers.
3. Self-Service Developer Onboarding:
Provide an API Developer Portal:
Interactive API docs (Swagger UI, Redoc)
API key registration
Sample code, SDKs, Postman collections
Include sandbox environments for testing.
Add usage analytics dashboards for developers.
4. Documentation and Discovery Tools:
OpenAPI/Swagger for machine-readable specs.
Redoc or Stoplight for human-friendly documentation.
API catalogs/portals (Apigee Developer Portal, Azure API Management,
Postman Workspaces).
Document authentication flows, rate limits, error codes, and use
cases clearly.

Scenario 4: Handling Breaking API Changes Across Teams

Context: Multiple teams are consuming a shared REST API that’s about to
change. You need to manage these changes without breaking downstream
services.

Questions: - What processes would you put in place to manage API

evolution? - How would you communicate and coordinate with teams? - How
would contract testing help here? - What would a rollout and rollback plan
look like?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Processes for Managing API Evolution:

Establish API Governance standards: guidelines for versioning,
deprecation, backward compatibility.
Introduce a review board or approval process for major API changes.
Define a clear deprecation policy with timelines and communication
protocols.
Use semantic versioning to signal impact level (v1.2 → v1.3 minor, v1 → v2
major).
2. Communication and Coordination with Teams:
Notify all stakeholders early using change advisory boards, team
channels, and mailing lists.
Provide changelogs, migration guides, and example payloads.
Allow parallel run time (v1 and v2 live) so teams can migrate at their
pace.
Host internal API documentation portals with usage dashboards to
identify impacted teams.
3. Role of Contract Testing:
Use Consumer-Driven Contract Testing (CDCT) to verify backward
compatibility.
Consumers define expected payloads and behaviors.
 Providers must pass these tests in CI before deployment.
Tools like Pact or Spring Cloud Contract ensure you never break
downstream apps silently.
4. Rollout and Rollback Plan:
Use canary releases to deploy changes gradually.
Monitor for 4xx/5xx spikes and latency changes.
Keep previous versions active until full migration.
Maintain feature toggles to rollback behaviors without reverting full
deployments.
Backup API specs and maintain rollback packages in CI/CD.

Scenario 5: Observability and Monitoring Strategy for REST APIs

Context: Your REST APIs are now live and critical to business operations.
The leadership wants better observability, including performance metrics,
error trends, and API usage analytics.

Questions: - What are the key metrics you would track for REST APIs? -
What tooling and architecture would you recommend? - How do you ensure
traceability across distributed microservices? - How do you proactively
detect and respond to issues?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Key Metrics to Track:

Latency (avg, P95, P99)
Request volume (RPS/QPS)
Error rates (4xx, 5xx breakdown)
Availability and uptime
Top failing endpoints
Rate-limited/unauthorized requests
Consumer usage (per API key/client)
2. Recommended Tooling:
Metrics: Prometheus + Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, AWS CloudWatch
Logging: ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), Loki, Fluentd
Tracing: Jaeger, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry for distributed tracing
Alerting: PagerDuty, OpsGenie, Prometheus AlertManager
3. Traceability Across Services:
Use correlation IDs:
Generate a unique X-Correlation-ID per request
Pass the same ID across all downstream services
Trace logs, metrics, and traces by this ID
Enable structured, JSON-formatted logs for easier parsing and indexing
4. Proactive Detection and Issue Response:
Set up SLIs/SLOs and error rate thresholds
Trigger alerts on anomalies (e.g., sudden spike in 500 errors or latency)
Automate dashboard generation per service
Add synthetic monitoring (health checks) for key endpoints
Periodic log reviews and trend analysis

Scenario 6: Designing Multi-Tenant REST APIs

Context: You are designing a SaaS platform that will be consumed by

multiple clients (tenants). Each tenant’s data must be logically isolated,
secure, and scalable.
 Questions: - How would you design a REST API to support multi-tenancy? -
What isolation strategies would you consider? - How do you handle security,
data partitioning, and throttling per tenant? - How would you manage
tenant-level monitoring and billing?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. API Design for Multi-Tenancy:

Use a Tenant ID in every request (either in path, header, or token claim):
Path-based: /tenants/{tenantId}/orders
Header-based: X-Tenant-ID
Token-based: Extract from JWT claims
2. Isolation Strategies:
Logical Isolation (common for SaaS):
Shared database with tenant-level row isolation
Enforced via application layer or query scoping
Physical Isolation (for large/regulated tenants):
Separate databases, schemas, or even deployments per tenant
3. Security & Access Control:
Ensure tenant-scoped access tokens (JWT includes tenant context)
Enforce access controls at the API Gateway and service layer
Protect against tenant impersonation or data leakage
4. Throttling & Quotas:
Define tenant-level rate limits and quotas
Apply rate limiting policies per API key or tenant ID
Support tiered plans (Free, Pro, Enterprise)
5. Monitoring, Reporting, and Billing:
Track usage metrics per tenant
Tag logs and metrics by tenant ID
Feed usage into billing systems or chargeback reports

Scenario 7: Transitioning from REST to GraphQL

Context: Your frontend teams are pushing for more flexibility in fetching
data. They are requesting a shift from REST to GraphQL for better query
control and reduced over-fetching.

Questions: - How would you approach transitioning from REST to

GraphQL? - What are the trade-offs between REST and GraphQL? - How
would you handle authentication, versioning, and caching in GraphQL? -
How would you balance the two APIs during the transition?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Transition Strategy:
Start by introducing GraphQL alongside REST, not replacing it
immediately (dual-stack approach).
Identify read-heavy, complex resource-fetching use cases as good
GraphQL candidates.
Wrap existing REST endpoints in a GraphQL abstraction layer (e.g.,
Apollo Gateway) if needed.
2. Trade-offs Between REST and GraphQL:
Pros of GraphQL:
Precise querying, avoids over-fetching
Single round-trip for nested resources
Better for frontend agility
 Cons:
Complexity in server schema and resolver design
More challenging caching and observability
No built-in HTTP status codes (error handling needs custom design)
3. Auth, Versioning, and Caching in GraphQL:
Authentication: Still done via HTTP headers (OAuth2, JWT)
Authorization: Must be handled at field-level or resolver-level in code
Versioning: Avoid versioning GraphQL APIs; use schema evolution
instead (add-only changes)
Caching: Use Apollo Client cache, or persisted queries with CDN
support
4. Balancing REST and GraphQL:
Maintain REST for simpler or legacy clients
Let frontend teams gradually migrate features to GraphQL
Expose analytics for adoption tracking
Eventually retire REST endpoints once GraphQL coverage is sufficient

Scenario 8: REST API Incident Response and Recovery Plan

Context: Your REST APIs are part of a mission-critical system. A major

outage has occurred and leadership wants a better incident management
and recovery strategy.

Questions: - How do you respond to and contain production REST API

incidents? - How do you design APIs and systems for better resilience and
recovery? - What is your incident post-mortem process? - How do you
prevent recurrence?

Expected Responses (Elaborated):

1. Incident Response Approach:

Follow Incident Response Playbook:
Acknowledge → Triage → Contain → Recover → Communicate →
Document
Use automated monitoring alerts to detect issues early
Quickly identify impact scope via dashboards and logs
Communicate with stakeholders via incident channels and status pages
2. Resilience & Recovery Design:
Implement retry policies, circuit breakers, bulkheads in client-side calls
Use graceful degradation (e.g., show cached data instead of error)
Support read replicas, failover regions, and blue-green deployment
strategies
3. Post-Mortem Process:
Conduct a blameless post-mortem review
Document:
Timeline of events
Root cause
Detection gaps
Remediation steps
Capture lessons learned and share across teams
4. Preventing Recurrence:
Automate root cause detection
Add synthetic tests or chaos engineering tests for similar scenarios
Refactor weak components and add observability gaps as backlog items
Improve deployment safety nets (e.g., feature flags, staged rollouts)