Chapter 05 — Read API documentation5 min read

Chapter quiz

Test yourself

You've learned how to navigate API docs, read endpoint pages, and build custom queries from parameter tables. Let's see what stuck.


Finding your way around

You're looking at the docs for a new API. What should you find first?

What is the 'base URL' in API documentation?


Reading parameters

You see this in the docs: pageSize (integer, optional, default: 20). What happens if you don't include pageSize in your request?

A parameter is marked as 'required' in the docs. What does this mean?

The docs say a parameter accepts type string. Which of these values is valid?


Understanding responses

The response schema says a field price has type integer and description 'Price in cents.' You see price: 1499 in the response. What's the actual price?

You see a response that includes total: 847, page: 1, limit: 20. What does this tell you?


Putting it together

You need articles about 'electric vehicles' from the NewsAPI /everything endpoint. The docs say q is required and sortBy is optional (default: publishedAt). Which URL is correct?


You're done with Chapter 5. You can now open any API's documentation and know exactly where to look: authentication first, then endpoints, then parameters. You know the difference between required and optional, you can read a response schema, and you've built custom queries from a real parameter table. When your engineering team shares an API doc, you'll know how to navigate it.