4 API Design Mistakes You Must Avoid (Or Risk Total Chaos!), 6 Essential Kafka Concepts You Need to Master, Forward vs Reverse Proxies Explained in 7 Easy Steps! - Sketech #17
With 3 bold, fun and memorable Sketech visuals to help you enjoy understanding and refreshing concepts in seconds ⭐
Hey! Nina here. Welcome to Sketech 17 Free Edition, where you’ll find visuals and insights to make technical learning unforgettable.
First, a huge thank you to everyone, 1,000 of you! Sketech has officially reached 1,000 subscribers, and I couldn’t be more grateful. This milestone is all thanks to you, your support, engagement and curiosity fuel this project. Sketech is a visually handcrafted and technical space where learning becomes clearer, more relaxed and memorable.
In this edition, we’re diving into the top-performing topics from last week:
4 API Design Mistakes You Must Avoid (Or Risk Total Chaos!) → Common pitfalls that can lead to poor API usability and maintenance headaches.
6 Essential Kafka Concepts You Need to Master → A visual breakdown of how Kafka works and where it fits in modern architectures.
Forward vs Reverse Proxies Explained in 7 Easy Steps! → Understanding the key differences and when to use each.
Hope you find it valuable!
4 API Design Mistakes You Must Avoid (Or Risk Total Chaos!)
Good APIs save time. Bad ones create technical debt and frustrate developers.
Common Mistakes
Inconsistent Naming
Mixed styles:
/create_user,/getUserDetailStandardize: Use RESTful patterns like
/users.
No Versioning
Breaking changes affect existing clients.
Add versions:
GET /api/v2/users.
Over-fetching/Under-fetching
Too much or too little data impacts performance.
Use query parameters:
GET /users/{id}?fields=name,email.
Poor Error Handling
Generic errors:
"Something went wrong!"Be explicit:
404: User not found.The user with the provided ID does not exist.
🔸Best Practices
Consistent Naming: Adopt one convention and follow it.
Versioning: Start with clear API versioning.
Controlled Fetching: Allow data filtering via parameters.
Clear Errors: Return meaningful status codes and messages.
APIs are long-term assets. Build them with clarity, consistency, and scalability in mind.
Which API mistake do you see repeated over and over again?
6 Essential Kafka Concepts You Need to Master
What is Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is a leading platform for distributed systems, known for its ability to handle real-time, scalable, and reliable data pipelines. Here's a breakdown of its essential components:
Core Components
Messages: Data units (key, value, headers) exchanged between producers and consumers for seamless communication.
Topics & Partitions: Topics organize messages, while partitions enable parallel processing and preserve message order within each partition.
Broker: A Kafka server that stores, manages, and distributes messages. It coordinates data flow between producers and consumers while ensuring fault tolerance and scalability.
Producers: Publish messages, assign partitions, and ensure delivery reliability with configurable acknowledgments.
Consumers: Retrieve messages, track offsets to avoid duplicates, and process data efficiently in real-time or batch mode.
Consumer Group: Consumers collaborating to read messages from a topic, with each message processed by one member for parallel, balanced processing.
Key Advantages
High Throughput: Handles millions of messages per second with minimal latency.
Scalability: Horizontal scaling through brokers and partitions ensures seamless data handling as workloads grow.
Durability: Replicated messages remain available even during broker failures, ensuring data reliability.
Best Practices
Optimize Partitions: Use partitions effectively for balanced parallel processing.
Monitor Offsets: Track consumer offsets to avoid message loss or duplication.
Kafka is a must-have for real-time systems, event-driven architectures and big data pipelines
What made you choose Kafka over other messaging systems for your architecture?
Forward vs Reverse Proxies Explained in 7 Easy Steps!
Forward and reverse proxies are critical components in network infrastructure, but they serve entirely different purposes. Here's a concise explanation:
Forward Proxy
A forward proxy works on the user side. Its main functions include:
Bypassing restrictions by rerouting traffic.
Filtering content based on predefined policies.
Protecting user privacy by hiding their IP addresses.
Forward proxies are commonly used in corporate environments for content control or by individuals seeking anonymity.
A company using a forward proxy to monitor employee internet usage and block unauthorized sites
Reverse Proxy
A reverse proxy operates on the server side. It is used to:
Distribute traffic across multiple servers to optimize performance.
Cache content for faster delivery.
Secure servers by preventing direct access to them.
Handle SSL encryption to manage secure connections.
Reverse proxies are essential for scaling websites, securing backend systems, and enhancing user experience.
Best Practices
Ensure proper configuration: Misconfigured proxies can expose vulnerabilities.
Monitor traffic: Regular monitoring helps identify anomalies and optimize proxy usage.
Use encryption: Secure all communications, especially in reverse proxy implementations.
Regular maintenance: Keep proxy software updated and perform security patches routinely.
Set up logging: Enable detailed logging for troubleshooting and security auditing purposes.
Examples of Reverse Proxy Software:
Nginx: Known for high performance and flexibility.
HAProxy: Excellent for load balancing and scalability.
Apache HTTP Server: Reliable with extensive module support
What forward proxy software would you recommend?
And with that, we’ve reached the end of Sketech Edition #17! Hitting 1,000 subscribers is a huge milestone, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Your support, feedback, and enthusiasm make this journey even more exciting.
If you found this edition helpful, drop a ❤️
See you in the next one!
Nina
Sketech Newsletter Bold and Fun Tech Visuals that Stick ❤️