API Design · Senior · Question 20 of 75

Why does HTTP/2 change the trade-offs around batching many small API requests?

✓Correct answer: Requests are multiplexed over one connection, so many small requests are cheaper than with HTTP/1.1, reducing the need for custom batch endpoints
2HTTP/2 forbids small requests
3HTTP/2 merges responses automatically into one JSON

Explanation

Per-request server work (auth, DB queries) still adds up, so batching can still help for heavy operations.

Further reading

Test yourself

Take the API Design · Senior quiz: questions and options are shuffled, and you get a review of your mistakes at the end.