HTTPSAPIs

HTTPS APIs refer to application programming interfaces that are delivered over the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). They use TLS to encrypt data in transit and to authenticate the server, and optionally support client certificates. This transport layer ensures that communications between clients and servers remain confidential and integral, while the API design provides the endpoints, data formats, and authorization rules.

Most HTTPS APIs are designed as REST or GraphQL endpoints, but any HTTP-based interface could be used. Endpoints expose resources or operations via standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) and communicate using JSON (with XML or other formats as alternatives). Authentication commonly relies on API keys, OAuth 2.0, JWTs, or mutual TLS, and many deployments use gateways, rate limiting, and versioning to manage access and reliability.

Security and reliability considerations include enforcing strong TLS configurations (TLS 1.2 or 1.3, modern ciphers), proper certificate validation, and mechanisms such as HSTS. In addition to transport security, servers must implement authorization checks, input validation, and secure data handling. Performance can be affected by TLS handshakes; to mitigate this, enable HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, employ keep-alives, and use appropriate caching with cache-control headers. Monitoring, logging, and regular credential rotation are also important practices.

Common usage examples are public web APIs provided by platforms such as GitHub or Stripe, which are accessed over HTTPS to protect credentials and data in transit.