Test Blog Post
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Abdullah Muhammad
Published on May 17, 2026 • 5 min read• 1 views
Introduction
In the past, we looked at testing APIs using tools such as Postman and explored OpenAI APIs for development. Today, we will be exploring some key APIs that can be useful to you in software development.
Experienced developers will likely know most of the APIs we will discuss, but if you are a newbie, this article will be beneficial to you.
For every application out there today, there exists an API. Take a look at social media apps. There is an API for X, Facebook, and Instagram.
Wait, how are these useful?
Suppose you are creating an application that displays profile data related to your X account. One way to access data related to your posts, replies, engagements, follows, and other activity is through the use of the X API.
It can be useful to track those numbers to ensure your account is always growing!
In the next section, we will walkthrough some common APIs that you can use in development.
Common APIs You Should Know About
The following sections detail APIs you should be familiar with. We will start by exploring cloud and navigate from there.
Cloud
If you are competent with cloud technologies such as Azure and AWS, you should know that every interaction with a service is done through the use of an API.
You might be using the CLI, cloud console, or SDK, but behind-the-scenes, an API call is made to the specific service and the appropriate action takes place.
The following is a list of links to the Azure and AWS APIs:
Feel free to explore these links, but always remember that when we make use of cloud services (via CLI, SDK or console), we are implicitly interacting with an API to complete requests.
Social Media
As covered earlier, social media apps all have their own set of APIs. We looked at Twitter and how one can use their API to create a dashboard to display personal statistics.
The following is a list of links to social media APIs:
The last one, Google, is quite big. Not only in terms of search engine ability, but also in the variety of services they offer (maps, analytics, etc.).
The following list highlights publicly available Google APIs:
Got an app that uses maps? Google has an API for that. Got an app that translates from one language to another? Google has an API for that.
Google makes your life easy!
Weather
For beginners, often times you are tasked with creating a live weather app as part of your learning journey.
There are several sources of data you can use for gathering weather data. I have listed three common APIs you can use to build an awesome weather app:
If you want to know (without looking out your window) if it is sunny or raining cats and dogs, you can use a ready-made weather API to figure that out!
Cryptocurrency
If you have dabbled in the cryptocurrency space, you might be familiar with developer tools that are readily available to you. Below, you will find useful APIs that you can use for free.
Whether you are searching up token prices, market data, or wallet activity, there is an API you can use to gather data:
In fact, I used all three APIs above to build out this awesome lightweight version of Etherscan. Feel free to check it out!
Dummy APIs
Lastly, you might be wondering what are dummy APIs. As the name implies, it is an API used for testing purposes only.
Suppose you want to test request and responses, you can use a dummy API to ensure communication is not an issue.
Dummy APIs can also be used to test front-end applications to see if the components render correctly and they display mock data after a successful API call.
The following is a list of common dummy APIs you can use to test your applications:
Need to test your application using mock data? Dummy APIs will allow you to do just that!
Conclusion
We covered common APIs that every developer should be familiar with. You just never know when you might need to use them.
There are many more APIs out there, but this article detailed common use cases for using one to build out an awesome application.
In this article, we explored cloud, social media, weather, cryptocurrency, and dummy APIs. You can find links to these APIs in the aforementioned sections of this article.
I hope you found this article informative and look forward to more in the future.
Thank you!
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