Challenge
A B2B SaaS company needed to expose internal services to third-party developers through a public API. Requirements included versioning, rate limiting, authentication, comprehensive documentation, and SLA guarantees. The existing internal APIs were inconsistent and not designed for external consumption.
Approach
Designed RESTful API architecture with consistent resource patterns and error handling. Implemented API gateway for authentication, rate limiting, and request routing. Built versioning strategy to allow backward-compatible evolution. Created OpenAPI specifications and auto-generated documentation. Developed SDKs in Python, JavaScript, and Go. Implemented comprehensive monitoring with SLA tracking and customer-facing status page.
Outcome
Successfully launched API platform with 50+ enterprise customers in first quarter. API achieved 99.95% uptime SLA with automated alerting on budget consumption. Developer satisfaction scores exceeded 8/10 based on documentation and SDK quality. Rate limiting prevented abuse while maintaining good developer experience. API became primary growth driver with 40% of revenue attributed to API-enabled integrations.
API Design
Python
TypeScript
Redis
OpenAPI
AWS