An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of programs called Services which can be used for accessing data and functionalities by Client Applications. There are different types of API’s like Class-based API’s (JAVA API, Android API), Library-based API’s (JavaScript, TWAIN) and web-service API’s (SOAP, JSON-RPC and REST). REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It is primarily used to build Web services that are lightweight, maintainable, and scalable. Any service based on REST is called a RESTful service.
Many popular websites and social media platforms are built using REST API. Some examples of these are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, GitHub, BBC, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, eBay. Almost every app in use today under OS X or iOS and Android – which communicates with a remote web server will use these APIs somewhere along the line. Even those apps which have nothing handled remotely other than online help may use a RESTful API to access that. One of the great advantages of REST and RESTful APIs is that they use simple HTTP (HTTPS for secure connections), coupled with URIs (URLs), which have proved to be very robust and reliable.
In today’s world internet usage has increased tremendously. More and more applications are being designed using the “Code on Demand” principle of RESTful architectural style. This way application starts with an endpoint and progresses automatically to a new state based on the server response. REST is preferred for Web use for this reason alone, but the RESTful model is also helpful in cloud services since binding to a service via an API is simply a matter of controlling the way a URL is decoded.
Now, to keep these APIs healthy, testing is a necessity. Tools like Selenium are not meant to handle this but proper testing tools to test REST APIs provide with managing tests for different versions of APIs, automatic test generation, mocking etc. Thus, currently there is an immense demand for REST API testing professionals. With the current growth trend, there would be an increasing demand for skilled REST API testing professionals in future. There are numerous positions that are available in this field, some of the popular positions are, REST API tester, REST API test engineer, Frontend Engineer, REST architect, REST API platform engineer, QA engineer, Quality engineer, backend engineer, software engineer, software test engineer, Lead test engineer, manual test engineer, Mobile engineer iOS. Salary for a fresher ranges from INR 4,80,000 to 5,50,000 per annum. A skilled, knowledgeable and experienced REST API testing professional can earn between INR 8,00,000 to 10,00,000 per annum. Salaries are dependent on many factors like skill, location, experience, education.
