jargon

Backend & systems·API and interface design

the mobile client needs two fields and the endpoint returns a forty-field object with three nested collections.

Over-fetching

Also calledunder-fetching, chatty API

Returning far more data than the caller needs, or so little that they must make several more calls. Both come from an API shaped around the database rather than the use case. Field selection, dedicated endpoints and GraphQL are all answers; a single generic endpoint serving every screen is how you get both problems at once.