Getting to know GraphQL

You might have heard of or be aware of GraphQL, which has become more popular in the API space in past few years and is becoming the preferred way of implementing APIs for handheld devices and the web.

GraphQL is a declarative query and manipulation language and server-side runtime for APIs. GraphQL empowers the client to query exactly the data they want – no more, no less.

We’ll discuss its brief history in the next subsection.

A brief history of GraphQL

In 2011, Facebook was facing challenges in terms of improving the performance of its website on mobile browsers. They started building their own mobile app with mobile-native technologies. However, APIs were not up to the mark because of hierarchical and recursive data. They wanted to optimize their network calls. Note that in those days, mobile network speed was in Kb/s in some parts of the world. Having a fast, high-quality mobile app was going to be the key to their success, since...