If you are on a desktop, you can run through the tutorial in a browser by clicking here. We also filmed a video in case you would rather sit back and watch.

What exactly is an OpenAPI? In this article, we'll cover the problem that OpenAPI solves and explore its importance in modern software architecture.

As software systems become more interconnected, OpenAPI has emerged as a vital tool for promoting collaboration and enabling seamless integration between different applications. Today large API-first companies like Stripe and Plaid use OpenAPI so it's no surprise that OpenAPI is finding widespread adoption.

Originally started as a side project, Postman has become one of the best tools for collaboratively building APIs with over 1.29 billion requests created in the past year.

As organizations' investments of time and resources into APIs increase, API-first organizations must leverage testing tools like Postman. Adopting an API tool is an effective way to save thousands of engineering hours.

SDKs makes the integration of REST APIs easier by packaging boilerplate code for developers.

Why do developers need help integrating APIs?​

Let's take a look at the numbers.

Plaid has a REST API with 215 operations, 1346 schemas, and 215 parameters.

SnapTrade has a REST API with 91 operations, 125 schemas, and 183 parameters.

Twilio has a REST API with 199 operations, 152 schemas, and 874 parameters.

The complexity of these APIs can be daunting for developers who are under a time pressure to integrate an API and frustrating for API companies because onboarding is time consuming. Developers are required to parse tons of documentation and code while API companies must provide continuous support for a successful partnership. To make matters worse, developers can be using a programming language that nobody at the API company knows. To alleviate the pain, best-in-class API companies publish SDKs to accelerate the integration process.