Learning API Styles • Lukasz Dynowski & Sam Newman

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.http://gotopia.tech/bookclubLukasz Dynowski - Independent Consultant & Co-Author of "Learning API Styles"Sam Newman - Author of "Building Microservices" & "Monolith to Microservices"Check out more here:https://gotopia.tech/episodes/436RESOURCESLukaszhttps://github.com/ludyn-leohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ldyniahttps://learningapistyles.comSamhttps://twitter.com/samnewmanhttps://github.com/snewmanhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/samnewmanhttp://samnewman.iohttp://samnewman.io/blogLinkshttps://www.youtube.com/@ldynia1https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkB-vSK4koOHYIhpKXuXpipVpByEKuPuhttps://learningapistyles.comhttps://github.com/ldynia/learning-api-styleshttps://nordicapis.com/the-bezos-api-mandate-amazons-manifesto-for-externalizationhttps://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1176617.1176622DESCRIPTIONIn this GOTO Book Club episode, Sam Newman — author of "Building Microservices" — sits down with Lukasz Dynowski, co-author of "Learning API Styles", for a refreshingly low-level deep dive into a subject most developers think they already understand. The book deliberately starts from the network layer up — transmission modes, TCP, protocol stacks — rather than jumping straight to REST and GraphQL, because, as Lukasz explains, most API problems only become visible when you understand the substrate beneath them. The conversation covers the full spectrum: public vs internal APIs, the Bezos API Mandate moment, why treating your API as a product is non-negotiable, and why the choice between binary and textual protocols is never as obvious as performance benchmarks suggest.The real gold comes in two moments. First, Lukasz lays out a crisp checklist for what makes a good API — audience-awareness, maintainability, efficiency, intuitiveness, resilience, security, testability, and documentation that actually matches behavior. Second, Sam shares a war story about a credit derivative system where the only way to figure out who was accessing the database was to turn off the credentials and wait for angry phone calls.The lesson: context shapes every trade-off, there's no universal right answer between REST, gRPC, WebSockets, or messaging, and the best API decision is the one that fits your situation — not the one that fits the conference talk.RECOMMENDED BOOKSLukasz Dynowski • Learning API Styles • https://amzn.to/3PFembKSam Newman • Building Resilient Distributed Systems • https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/building-resilient-distributed/9781098163532Sam Newman • Monolith to Microservices • https://amzn.to/2Nml96ESam Newman • Building Microservices • https://amzn.to/3dMPbOsRonnie Mitra & Irakli Nadareishvili • Microservices: Up and Running• https://amzn.to/3c4HmmLBlueskyInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!