How to Improve API Performance: Tips, Techniques & Best Practices

Lessons from a Slow API in Production

Photo by Wes Tindel on Unsplash

Not a member? Read for FREE

“APIs have been a real pain point for me. Even after delivering the product and pushing it to production, the APIs didn’t perform as expected. What should ideally take less than a second often ends up taking 4–5 seconds — and that’s frustrating, both as a developer and a user.”

I’ve been in that situation more than once — staring at network logs, wondering why a seemingly simple endpoint is taking ages to respond. After a lot of debugging, Googling, and diving into books on algorithms and software architecture, I started identifying patterns. Eventually, I collated a list of practical techniques that genuinely helped improve API performance.

In this article, I’m sharing those learnings — 15 real-world strategies that have worked for me across different projects. Whether you’re trying to fix a slow endpoint or just build more scalable APIs from day one, I hope these insights help you save time and headaches.

1. Optimize Database Access

Why it matters: Your API is only as fast as the database queries behind it.

How to implement:

• Use indexes on…