REST APIs - lesson 1 | HackIndia Skills

Start with nouns

Before you choose URLs or status codes, decide what things your API manages. These things are resources.

A resource is usually a noun your teammate can point to: student, event, team, payment, submission. It is not an action like register, pay, approve, or search.

Key point

One idea

Design the API around resources, not screens or buttons. Actions usually become changes to a resource, or creation of a related resource.

Example

Hackathon example

Imagine you are building a college hackathon API. A beginner might list features like this: create event, register team, approve project, view submissions.

Now rewrite them as resources. This gives you a cleaner base for routes later.

Feature idea -> Resource

create event -> events
register team -> registrations
approve project -> projects or reviews
view submissions -> submissions
add team member -> team_members
track UPI payment -> payments

Your to-do

Find resources

Do each one yourself, then tap it to tick it off. The ticks are only a checklist for you: they are not marked or scored.

Write the main user goal in one line.
Circle the nouns in that line.
Keep nouns that your API must store, show, update, or delete.
Merge duplicates, like participant and user if they mean the same thing.
Drop UI words, like dashboard, page, form, tab, and button.

0 of 5 done

Common mistake

Do not start with routes like /createEvent, /doPayment, or /getAllTeams. These describe functions, not resources.

Your repo will look more professional if the API feels like a model of the real system, not a list of button clicks.

Tip

Use AI carefully

You can ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to extract resources from your app idea. Do not accept the first list blindly.

Check if each item is a real thing your API stores or returns. Remove vague words like data, info, record, manager, and service.

Prompt:
I am building a REST API for a college hackathon project.
App idea: Teams register for events, submit projects, judges review submissions, and organisers publish results.
List the main API resources as nouns.
For each resource, say what it represents.
Avoid actions, screens, and UI terms.