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intermediatePhase ·

Error Handling

Design consistent error response formats.

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Error Design

Error Response Format

{
  "error": {
    "code": "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "Product not found with id: 123",
    "details": [],
    "timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
  }
}

Error Categories

Status Code When
400 BAD_REQUEST Invalid input
401 UNAUTHORIZED No auth
403 FORBIDDEN No permission
404 NOT_FOUND Resource missing
422 VALIDATION_ERROR Validation fail
429 RATE_LIMITED Too many requests
500 INTERNAL_ERROR Server error

API Best Practices

Design Principles

  • Use nouns, not verbs
  • Plural resource names
  • Consistent naming conventions
  • Proper HTTP status codes

Versioning

  • URI versioning (/v1/resource)
  • Header versioning
  • Deprecation policy

Documentation

  • OpenAPI/Swagger specs
  • Request/Response examples
  • Error code documentation
  • Rate limit documentation

Key Points

  • Understanding API Design: Error Handling is essential for production systems
  • Always consider scalability and maintainability
  • Test thoroughly before deploying to production
  • Monitor performance and set up alerting

Common Patterns

  1. Validation: Always validate input at the boundary
  2. Error Handling: Use structured error responses
  3. Logging: Log key events for debugging
  4. Testing: Unit, integration, and load tests
  5. Documentation: Keep docs updated with code changes

Practice Problems

0/3solved
Implement API Design: Error Handling

Design and implement a solution for API Design: Error Handling in a backend system. Consider scalability, error handling, and production readiness.

Solution
// API Design: Error Handling implementation
// Key aspects: validation, error handling, logging, testing

public class APIDesignErrorHandling {
    // Production-ready implementation
}
API Design: Error Handling Edge Cases

Identify and handle edge cases for API Design: Error Handling. What happens under high load, with invalid input, or during failures?

Solution
// Edge case handling:
// 1. Null/empty input -> validation
// 2. High load -> rate limiting, queuing
// 3. Failures -> retries, circuit breaker
// 4. Concurrent access -> locks, idempotency
API Design: Error Handling Testing Strategy

Write a testing strategy for API Design: Error Handling. Include unit tests, integration tests, and performance tests.

Solution
// Test plan:
// - Unit: 80% coverage target
// - Integration: API contracts
// - Performance: latency, throughput
// - Chaos: failure injection

Quiz

1. Error response should include?

Question 1 options

2. 429 status means?

Question 2 options

3. What is the primary purpose of API Design: Error Handling?

Question 3 options

4. What is a common mistake when implementing API Design: Error Handling?

Question 4 options

Flashcards

Question

Error response includes?

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Answer

Code, message, details (no stack traces)

Question

429 status?

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Answer

Rate limit exceeded

Question

What is API Design: Error Handling?

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Answer

API Design: Error Handling is a key concept in backend development.

Question

When to use API Design: Error Handling?

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Answer

Use API Design: Error Handling when building production systems that require reliability, scalability, and maintainability.

Question

API Design: Error Handling best practices

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Answer

Follow SOLID principles, write clean code, test thoroughly, document decisions, and monitor in production.

Revision Notes

Key Takeaways

  • 1.Consistent error response format
  • 2.Include code, message, details
  • 3.Never expose stack traces
  • 4.Map each error type to status code

Interview Tips

  • •Design error responses
  • •Map error types to status codes

Cheat Sheet

Error Design

  • Format: { code, message, details }
  • Never: stack traces
  • 400: bad request, 401: unauthorized
  • 404: not found, 429: rate limited