Top 10 APIs for beginners

Want to learn how to start using APIs?

This article is part of the She Hacks collection where we write about different topics that might help other women participate and thrive in hackathons.

We kicked off the She Hacks collection by answering the question, What is an API? When you are first learning how to use APIs it is important to have access to great documentation and developer support. This list showcases a range of APIs for different purposes which are all great for beginners.

The first API I learned to use was the Google Maps JavaScript API. I loved that the documentation was so easy to read and it only took a few minutes for me to create my first app. I started learning at a hackathon where I attended a workshop with Pamela Fox, she was working at Google as a Developer Advocate for Google Maps at the time. Pamela is now over at Khan Academy where she is working on the programming curriculum. At the conclusion of the workshop, Pamela gave us information on how we could continue to learn about APIs on our own after the event. That was back in 2009, since then documentation of APIs has come a long way. I’m so glad that companies and startups have placed a focus on clearly documenting their APIs and there are so many APIs that are fantastic for beginners.

Here is a list of the She Hacks Top 10 APIs for beginners. These APIs are great to get started with. They have interesting content and services, great documentation, developer support and useful examples for you to look at.

1. Google Maps: https://developers.google.com/maps/web/
2. Twitter: https://dev.twitter.com/docs
3. YouTube: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/getting-started
4. Soundcloud: http://developers.soundcloud.com/docs/api/guide#playing
5. Stripe: https://stripe.com/docs/tutorials/checkout
6. Instagram: http://instagram.com/developer/
7. Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/docs
8. Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/developers/getting_started
9. Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/login-flow-for-web
10. Gremlin: http://help.gremlin.com

Which API do you think is the best to learn first? Leave a note on this article and share it with others.