12 HN users recommended this talk12 months2011–2025score 13.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN repeatedly names it the best resource on API design, a staple answer to any 'how do I design an API' question.
Joshua Bloch's Google Tech Talk on how to design good APIs and why it matters, with concrete principles and examples. It treats every programmer as an occasional API designer.
“Absolutely far and away the best resource that I found was this Google TechTalk by Joshua Bloch” (HN, 2012)
Obviously, this is marketing rather than a serious treatment of the topic. It seems to basically say: "in order to design a system, you should have a regular undergraduate Computer Science education" which seems maybe like a prerequisite (and maybe informative about their hiring process) but not very useful. However, for what it's worth, the two best resources I've seen for systems design are: Hints for Computer System Design: [link] How to Design a Good API: [this video] What else should be in this bibliography?
I'm building a public API in my current job and, a few weeks ago, I was scouting around for the good API design advice. Absolutely far and away the best resource that I found was this Google TechTalk by Joshua Bloch: [this video] If you're interested in the topic and haven't seen it yet, I urge you to do so ASAP.
Nice article. I'd also highly recommend "How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters" video from Joshua Bloch (co-author of Java). He digs much deeper, mostly at code level rather than JSON level but the same principles apply. Even though this video is almost 20 years old, the topics are as significant today as they were back then. [this video]
Deeper code-level API design principles that still apply
Joshua Bloch gave a good presentation on API design, you might have seen this before. Here is the link - [this video] Mostly along those lines will make a presentation useful and interesting. Not sure whats the time limit for your presentation but real life example would keep the audience more interactive or building something on the fly from ground up.
Not specifically about web service APIs, but you might enjoy this talk by Joshua Bloch [1]: "How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters": [this video] [1] [link]
How about this to start? "How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters" -- a great talk by Joshua Bloch (also the author of "Effective Java") [this video]
Single best is difficult, here are some favourites of mine: "You and your research" by Richard Hamming: [link] "How to design a good API and why it matters" by Joschua Bloch: [this video] Google TechTalk on Git by Linus Torvalds: [link] All talks ever given by Alan Kay, for example: [link]
I highly recommend the following talk by Joshua Bloch: "How to design a good API and why it mattes" [1]. Key points: - When in doubt, leave it out - you can never remove things from an API but always add to it. - Write several clients of the API to get a good feel how its used. Three is usually enough, one is not. [1] [this video]
Don't miss Joshua Bloch (from "Effective Java" fame) great presentation: How to design a good API and why it matters [this video] and the accompanying slides: [link]
How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters [0] The Principles of Clean Architecture [1] The State of the Art in Microservices by Adrian Cockcroft [2] "The Mess We're In" by Joe Armstrong [3] [0] [this video] [1] [link] [2] [link] [3] [link]
a.) On java - one hour talk but good: * How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters [this video] b.) General code structure - dont to read it cover to cover unless you like to, you will die of boredom, but definitely have a look in library. It will help you to think about code structure right way. * Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code * Code Complete c.) Object Oriented Programming * Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented The three books I recommended are older, but not much changed in basics of object oriented programming. They are well readable. I would also recommend to read something on functional programming, mostly so that you see another approach too and thus wont go too far with object design where it does not suits. d.) 8.) I read awesome book on estimations, I really really hope it is this one: * Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art tldr: There is difference between negotiation and estimation, make sure you know which you are doing. Split it into smaller tasks and then estimate minimum, maximum and most likely. Then calculate (min+4*likely+max)/6. Surprisingly, it works and is faster then do one estimate. It is also more precise then anything else I tried. I really hope I shown you right book. e.) On Spring and rest, I would recommend to read documentation and write own code. I don't recall a book that would blow my mind, so I guess any will do. f.) For general "latest tech" learning, I like [link] site. There are mostly techie te
Hour-long talk on API design, good for Java learners
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