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How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters

Google TechTalks · talk · Watch on YouTube

Software architecture & designPython, Ruby & scripting languages

What it is

Joshua Bloch's Google Tech Talk on how to design good APIs and why it matters, with concrete principles and examples. It treats every programmer as an occasional API designer.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN repeatedly names it the best resource on API design, a staple answer to any 'how do I design an API' question.

  • 12 people recommended it
  • 12 different months
  • 3 strong recommendations
  • first 2011, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “the two best resources I've seen for systems design are”

    One of the best resources on systems design

    socratic, 2011-10 · Strong recommendation · in “How to Rock a Systems Design Interview”

  2. “Absolutely far and away the best resource that I found was this Google TechTalk by Joshua Bloch”

    Best API design advice found by the commenter

    philbo, 2012-03 · Strong recommendation · in “API Design is UI for Developers”

  3. “He digs much deeper, mostly at code level rather than JSON level but the same principles apply.”

    Deeper code-level API design principles that still apply

    minzak, 2025-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Everything I know about good API design”

  4. “Joshua Bloch gave a good presentation on API design”

    Joshua Bloch's presentation on API design

    rjhackin, 2011-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What makes a good API presentation?”

  5. “you might enjoy this talk by Joshua Bloch”

    Joshua Bloch's talk on designing good APIs

    d_r, 2011-08 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: API design practices”

  6. “Favorite technical talk on API design”

    stiff, 2013-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's the best technical talk you've heard?”

  7. “I highly recommend this ~hour long talk given by Josh Bloch a few years ago”

    Hour-long talk with concrete examples of good API design

    mockindignant, 2014-10 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What makes an API good?”

  8. “When in doubt, leave it out - you can never remove things from an API but always add to it.”

    Key API design principles from Bloch

    paulkoer, 2014-10 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What makes an API good?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: api design, joshua bloch, software engineering, java, interfaces

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