Definition
Developed by Facebook, GraphQL provides a complete and understandable description of the data in your API, giving clients the power to ask for exactly what they need and nothing more. It replaces multiple endpoints for REST APIs with a single endpoint, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching of data. The schema-driven approach ensures type safety and enables powerful tooling for developers, making it a popular choice for modern web and mobile application backends.
Summary
GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with existing data, allowing clients to request exactly what they need.
Key Concepts
- Schema Definition
- Query Language
- Single Endpoint
- Type Safety
Use Cases
- Modern web application backends
- Mobile app data fetching
- Microservices orchestration