How many different API protocols are there and what are their use cases?

[fastqa]

The first 5 are most popular API protocols.

1. REST: A stateless, resource-based architecture that uses standard HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE to interact with resources.

2. GraphQL: A flexible query language for APIs that allows clients to request exactly the data they need, reducing over-fetching or under-fetching.

3. gRPC: A high-performance RPC framework that uses HTTP/2 and Protocol Buffers for efficient, real-time communication between services.

4. WebHooks: Event-driven callbacks that allow real-time data to be pushed from one system to another when an event occurs.

5. WebSockets: A protocol for bidirectional, persistent communication between a client and server, ideal for real-time applications.

6. SOAP: A protocol for exchanging structured information using XML messages, typically in enterprise-level, secure, and transaction-based services.

7. JSON-RPC: A simple, lightweight protocol that uses JSON to encode remote procedure calls between client and server.

8. XML-RPC: A protocol for remote procedure calls using XML messages, offering simplicity but with heavier data formats compared to JSON.

9. OData: A protocol built on top of REST that allows querying and updating data in a standardized way, commonly used in enterprise environments.

10. Falcor: A JavaScript framework that simplifies data fetching by allowing clients to query a single endpoint and aggregate data from multiple sources.