Learning API Styles • Lukasz Dynowski & Sam Newman • GOTO 2026

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club. #GOTOcon #GOTObookclub
http://gotopia.tech/bookclub

Lukasz Dynowski - Independent Consultant & Co-Author of "Learning API Styles" @ldynia1 
Sam Newman - Author of "Building Microservices" & "Monolith to Microservices" @SamNewmanWork 

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/episodes/436

RESOURCES
Lukasz
https://github.com/ludyn-leo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldynia
https://learningapistyles.com

Sam
https://twitter.com/samnewman
https://github.com/snewman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samnewman
http://samnewman.io
http://samnewman.io/blog

Links
https://www.youtube.com/@ldynia1
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkB-vSK4koOHYIhpKXuXpipVpByEKuPu
https://learningapistyles.com
https://github.com/ldynia/learning-api-styles
https://nordicapis.com/the-bezos-api-mandate-amazons-manifesto-for-externalization
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1176617.1176622
https://youtu.be/t67oWHa00iE
https://youtu.be/etKM5-gGwto
https://youtu.be/272ZZ53HS_4
https://youtu.be/Ss1tZjooo9I
https://youtu.be/nxQrpLfX3rs
https://youtu.be/3iY9WDXPIVo
https://youtu.be/SrA543HT3bA
https://youtu.be/pUxyukqoXR4
https://youtu.be/ESM84C7QKl8
https://youtu.be/IawEKBxjs14
https://youtu.be/GBTdnfD6s5Q

DESCRIPTION
In this GOTO Book Club episode, Sam Newman — author of "Building Microservices" — sits down with Lukasz Dynowski, co-author of "Learning API Styles", for a refreshingly low-level deep dive into a subject most developers think they already understand. The book deliberately starts from the network layer up — transmission modes, TCP, protocol stacks — rather than jumping straight to REST and GraphQL, because, as Lukasz explains, most API problems only become visible when you understand the substrate beneath them. The conversation covers the full spectrum: public vs internal APIs, the Bezos API Mandate moment, why treating your API as a product is non-negotiable, and why the choice between binary and textual protocols is never as obvious as performance benchmarks suggest.

The real gold comes in two moments. First, Lukasz lays out a crisp checklist for what makes a good API — audience-awareness, maintainability, efficiency, intuitiveness, resilience, security, testability, and documentation that actually matches behavior. Second, Sam shares a war story about a credit derivative system where the only way to figure out who was accessing the database was to turn off the credentials and wait for angry phone calls.
The lesson: context shapes every trade-off, there's no universal right answer between REST, gRPC, WebSockets, or messaging, and the best API decision is the one that fits your situation — not the one that fits the conference talk.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
01:30 Why start from the network layer?
05:12 Who is this book for?
08:41 Public vs private APIs & the Bezos API Mandate
11:09 Making API trade-off decisions: Security, efficiency & context
19:49 Future of APIs: gRPC, WebTransport & what's coming next
25:44 What makes a good API?
30:07 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Lukasz Dynowski • Learning API Styles • https://amzn.to/3PFembK
Sam Newman • Building Resilient Distributed Systems • https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/building-resilient-distributed/9781098163532
Sam Newman • Monolith to Microservices • https://amzn.to/2Nml96E
Sam Newman • Building Microservices • https://amzn.to/3dMPbOs
Ronnie Mitra & Irakli Nadareishvili • Microservices: Up and Running• https://amzn.to/3c4HmmL

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#API #APIs #LearningAPIStyles #GraphQL #gRPC #Microservices #WebSockets #SoftwareArchitecture #TodayInTech #SoftwareEngineering #Programming #LukaszDynowski #SamNewman #BookClub

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