Why REST Is Not Enough: A Deep Dive into GraphQL

For years, REST (Representational State Transfer) has been the go-to architecture for designing APIs. While RESTful APIs are powerful, they come with certain limitations – over-fetching data, under-fetching data, and complex endpoint management, to name a few.

Enter GraphQL – a flexible query language that solves many of REST’s pain points by allowing clients to request exactly what they need. But is GraphQL always the better choice? Let’s explore why REST is not enough and how GraphQL addresses modern API challenges.

The Limitations of REST

While REST APIs are widely used, they come with a few challenges:

1. Over-fetching and Under-fetching of Data

In REST, the API response structure is fixed. This means:

• Over-fetching: The client gets more data than it needs.

• Under-fetching: The client doesn’t get enough data, requiring multiple API calls.

Example: REST Over-fetching Issue

Imagine an endpoint that fetches user details:

GET /users/123

Response:

{
  "id": 123,
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com"…