Comments Off on Presentation : Netflix API: Keynote at Disney Tech Conference

By daniel_jacobson, June 8, 2013 6:15 pm

In June 2013, Disney hosted what I believe was their first internal tech conference, to be hosted in Orlando at Disney World. They asked me to be a keynote speaker at this conference. Below are the slides from that keynote.

This presentation discusses the evolution of Netflix’s API architecture over time. It begins by explaining Netflix’s initial “one-size-fits-all” REST API model and how requests grew exponentially as more devices were supported. This led Netflix to move away from resource-based APIs to experience-based APIs tailored for specific devices and use cases. Key aspects of the new design included reducing “chattiness”, handling variability across devices, and supporting innovation at different rates. The document also discusses Netflix’s approach to versioning APIs and making them more resilient through techniques like circuit breakers and fallbacks.