Projects — Module 01: Introduction to APIs¶

These projects are scoped to the concepts covered in Module 01. For the full topic project list spanning all difficulty levels, see the topic-level PROJECTS.md.

Module-Appropriate Projects¶

These projects are designed to reinforce Module 01's concepts: HTTP anatomy, REST constraints, making API calls, and understanding over/under-fetching.

P1: API Explorer CLI Tool [Beginner]¶

Description: Build a command-line tool that accepts a GitHub username as an argument and prints a summary: the user's name, bio, number of public repos, and their 3 most recently updated repository names. No authentication required (public data).

Concepts from this module: - Making GET requests with Python requests - Parsing JSON responses - Reading status codes and handling 404 gracefully - Understanding that GET /users/{username} and GET /users/{username}/repos are two separate REST resources

Estimated Time: 3–5 hours

Starting Point: Blank Python file. Start with requests.get("https://api.github.com/users/torvalds") and inspect the response.

Success Criteria: - [ ] Accepts a username as a command-line argument (python explorer.py torvalds) - [ ] Prints name, bio, public repo count - [ ] Lists 3 most recently updated repositories - [ ] Handles the case where the user doesn't exist (404) with a friendly message - [ ] Code is commented and readable

P2: REST API Design Document [Beginner]¶

Description: Choose a domain you know well (a podcast app, a fitness tracker, a library, a restaurant ordering system). Write a REST API design document that defines the resource model, URI structure, HTTP methods, and example request/response pairs for at least 5 endpoints. No code required — this is a design exercise.

Concepts from this module: - REST uniform interface constraint - Resource identification with URIs - HTTP method semantics - Thinking in nouns (resources) not verbs (actions)

Estimated Time: 2–4 hours

Starting Point: Blank Markdown document. Start by listing all the "things" (resources) in your domain.

Success Criteria: - [ ] At least 5 distinct REST endpoints defined - [ ] All URI use noun-based plural naming (no /getX, no /doY) - [ ] Correct HTTP methods for each operation - [ ] Example request and response JSON for each endpoint - [ ] Correct status codes documented for success and the most likely error case

P3: HTTP Transaction Logger [Intermediate]¶

Description: Write a Python script that uses the requests library to make 5–10 API calls to different public APIs, and logs each transaction to a file. Each log entry should include: timestamp, method, URL, status code, response time (in ms), and whether the response was cached (check the Age or X-Cache headers if present).

Concepts from this module: - HTTP request anatomy - Status codes in the wild - HTTP headers (especially caching-related ones) - Practical use of the requests library

Estimated Time: 4–6 hours

Starting Point: Install requests. Try curl -v https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 first to see what headers come back.

Success Criteria: - [ ] Makes at least 5 API calls to at least 2 different public APIs - [ ] Logs each transaction with all required fields - [ ] Measures and logs response time - [ ] At least one log entry shows a non-200 status code (use /posts/99999 on JSONPlaceholder) - [ ] Comments explain what each significant header means

Project Attempt Template¶

When you attempt a project, fill in this template:

# Project: [Name]

**Started:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Completed:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Time Spent:** N hours

## What I Built
[Description]

## Link / Location
[GitHub repo or file path]

## What I Learned
- [Learning 1]
- [Learning 2]

## What Was Hard
[What challenged you and how you worked through it]

## What I'd Do Differently
[Honest retrospective]