An API integration isn't finished when it returns 200 OK.

An API integration isn't finished when it returns 200 OK.

It’s finished when it handles failure gracefully.

Timeouts, duplicate retries, malformed responses, and partial failures are what separate a working integration from a reliable one.

Build with:

• Sensible timeouts

• Bounded retries with backoff

• Idempotency to prevent duplicate operations

• Structured logging

• Monitoring and alerts

At a startup, integrations often touch everything — the frontend, backend, database, and external services. One small failure can quickly become everyone's problem.

Happy paths are demos. Failure paths are engineering.

What’s the most unexpected API integration bug you’ve encountered?

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