API Design

Notes

For 90% of interviews, default to REST, which maps resources to URLs and uses HTTP methods to manipulate them, e.g., POST /events/{id}/bookings for creating a booking.

When returning large result sets, pagination comes into play. Cursor-based pagination works better for real-time data where new items get added frequently. Offset-based pagination is fine for most cases.

References

1. Core Concepts for System Design Interviews. www.hellointerview.com . Accessed Jun 6, 2026.