API course for beginners
This API course for beginners helps you understand how APIs work through simple explanations and interactive exercises. Read JSON, send requests, and explore authentication in your browser. Free, with no signup or coding experience required.
No signup · No coding experience · Learn at your own pace
Learn by doing
Throughout the course, you send real API calls and see the results instantly. No tool to install, everything happens right here. Go ahead, try this one.
Who is this for?
Beginners
Start from scratch with clear explanations and hands-on exercises. No technical background needed.
Product Managers
Understand integrations, write better specs, and speak your engineers’ language.
Business analysts
Who work with technical products and need to understand integrations.
Students
In tech, business, or design programs who want a head start.
This course is for you if
You want to understand what happens behind an API call.
Endpoints, JSON, HTTP methods, status codes: learn what each part does, with examples you can try yourself.
You don’t want to install anything or write code.
Nothing to configure, no terminal to open. You learn by clicking buttons and reading real API responses, right in the browser.
You want to evaluate APIs and ask the right questions.
Read documentation, try endpoints, and understand what an API can do before using it in a project.
What you’ll learn
7 chapters. About 2h40.
- 01
JSON — the language APIs speak
Learn to read and understand the data structure behind every API response.
16 min
- 02
Make your first API calls
Endpoints, requests, and responses explained in plain product language.
30 min
- 03
How APIs are designed
Databases, REST conventions, and why your engineers structure routes the way they do.
23 min
- 04
Understand authentication
API keys, tokens, and OAuth explained. Why some requests get rejected.
26 min
- 05
Read API documentation
Navigate real developer docs and quickly find the information you need.
22 min
- 06
Webhooks and real-time data
When the server calls you back. Notifications, events, and async flows.
15 min
- 07
APIs at work
Real integrations, API evaluation, testing with Postman, and talking to your team.
27 min
Built by people who get it
Made by Raphaëlle, a Product Manager with 15 years of experience, and Mathieu, a teacher and former developer. She knows what non-technical people struggle with. He knows how to explain it. Every lesson was tested on real people before going live.
hello@api101.orgYou probably have questions
Do I need to know how to code?+
Not at all. If you can use a spreadsheet, you can do this.
How long does it take?+
About 2h40. You can go through it in one sitting or spread it over a week.
Why is it free?+
Understanding APIs shouldn’t cost anything. This course is free, with no account required, and it always will be.
Will I be able to build an API after this?+
This course teaches you to understand and use APIs. Building and deploying your own backend is a separate next step.
Free, forever
This course is open-source and published under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. You are free to share, adapt, and use it however you like, even for your company. No catch, no paywall, no hidden agenda. Just a gift to the community.
