REST vs gRPC vs WebSocket: How to Choose the Right API Protocol

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A software engineering explainer uses a fictional uncle-nephew dialogue to walk through four major API communication protocols: REST, gRPC, SOAP, and WebSocket. Each protocol involves trade-offs — REST is human-readable and stateless but chattier, gRPC is fast and strongly typed but not browser-native, SOAP offers strict formal contracts suited to regulated industries, and WebSocket enables real-time server-pushed communication. The conversation uses a Flipkart-style wishlist feature as a practical example to demonstrate how to eliminate unsuitable options through reasoned criteria rather than defaulting to convention. For a wishlist add/remove action called by browsers and mobile clients, REST emerges as the appropriate choice after ruling out the others on technical grounds. The episode also hints that WebSocket could be relevant for a price-drop notification feature explored in a future installment.

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