API Ingestion: The Bug Magnet

Concepts covered: paApiIngestion

API ingestion is what a SaaS connector does. Stripe, Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Ads, Shopify, and a long tail of vendors expose REST or GraphQL endpoints that return paginated results. Pipelines call those endpoints, paginate, and write the results to a raw zone. The pattern is conceptually identical to pull ingestion from a database, but the operational profile is dramatically worse because every concern is now mediated by HTTP and a vendor-controlled rate limit. The Four Concerns of API Ingestion Pagination Styles Three pagination styles cover almost every API. Page-based pagination uses page=1, page=2 query parameters and is the easiest to reason about; it suffers from drift if records are added during pagination. Cursor-based pagination returns an opaque cursor in each response that t

About This Interactive Section

This section is part of the Ingestion Patterns: Beginner lesson on DataDriven, a free data engineering interview prep platform. Each section includes explanations, worked examples, and hands-on code challenges that execute in real time. SQL queries run against a live PostgreSQL database. Python runs in a sandboxed Docker container. Data modeling problems validate against interactive schema canvases. All content is framed around what data engineering interviewers actually test at companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Stripe, and Databricks.

How DataDriven Lessons Work

DataDriven combines four interview rounds (SQL, Python, Data Modeling, Pipeline Architecture) with adaptive difficulty and spaced repetition. Easy problems get harder as you improve. Weak concepts resurface until you master them. Your readiness score tracks progress across every topic interviewers test. Every lesson section ends with problems you solve by writing and running real code, not by picking multiple-choice answers.