🔹 Caching: Stores responses temporarily to reduce the need for repeated processing.

🔹 Rate Limiting and Throttling: Controls the number of requests a client can make within a certain period.
🔹 API Composition: Combines multiple backend API requests into a single frontend request to optimize performance.

🔹 Load Balancing: Distributes requests across multiple servers to ensure no single server is overwhelmed.
🔹 Security: Implements security measures like authentication, authorization, and data encryption.

It is essentially a middleman between the client and the server, managing and optimizing API traffic.

Key Functions of an API Gateway
🔹 Request Routing: Directs incoming API requests to the appropriate backend service.

API Gateway 101

An API gateway is a server that acts as an API front-end, receiving API requests, enforcing throttling and security policies, passing requests to the back-end service, and then returning the appropriate result to the client.

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This is based on research from many Netflix engineering blogs and open-source projects. If you come across any inaccuracies, please feel free to inform us.

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