Explain like I'm a newbie

Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface that programmers can use to interact with a software system. For example, Bob is a waiter at a restaurant. He relays your order to the kitchen, and Bob brings the food back to you. The kitchen is the software system, and Bob is the API.

The API is in charge of handling requests, checking with the system whether the requests are attainable, and sending back a response. In the restaurant, if the dish you ordered is sold out, the waiter will inform you and ask you to choose another dish.

An API doesn't expose the inner workings of a software system, just like a waiter doesn't tell you about the chaos that goes on in the kitchen.

In web development, an API is usually about creating, retrieving, modifying, and deleting information in a database. The famous Twitter API allows users with programming skills to read their feed, post a new tweet, follow a user, etc., all without using the Twitter App or Twitter website.

Programmers can even use the Twitter API to build custom websites and mobile apps that work just like Twitter. API is the interface created by programmers, for programmers, to interact with a software system.

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