jargon

Backend & systems·API and interface design

instead of your client polling for changes, you POST to a URL they gave you whenever something happens.

Webhook

Also calledreverse API, HTTP callback

A server-to-server HTTP callback delivered on an event. It removes polling latency and load. It makes you a client of an endpoint you do not control, so you need retries with backoff, a signature so the receiver can verify the payload, and at-least-once semantics that receivers must deduplicate.

Commonly confused with