Software Development APIs and Backend Development

GraphQL Fundamentals

Build, query, and reason about modern GraphQL APIs with Professor Daniel Martin

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Quick Course Facts
20
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
20
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
7.1
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the GraphQL Fundamentals Course

GraphQL Fundamentals is a practical Software Development course that teaches you how to build, query, and reason about modern GraphQL APIs with Professor Daniel Martin. You will learn how GraphQL works from schema design through production readiness, gaining the confidence to choose the right API style and create more efficient data-driven applications.

Build Practical GraphQL API Skills For Modern Software Development

  • Learn when to use GraphQL instead of REST and how to make sound API architecture decisions.
  • Write clear, reusable queries with fields, arguments, aliases, variables, and fragments.
  • Design reliable schemas using types, relationships, nullability, interfaces, unions, and contracts.
  • Prepare GraphQL APIs for real-world use with resolvers, mutations, authorization, caching, and performance patterns.

GraphQL Fundamentals teaches the essential concepts and workflows behind building modern GraphQL APIs.

This course begins with the foundations of why GraphQL exists, how it compares to REST, and how its type system supports predictable API design. You will then move into the GraphQL query language, learning how to request exactly the data you need while keeping queries readable, reusable, and maintainable.

As the course progresses, Professor Daniel Martin guides you through schema design, object types, scalars, enums, lists, relationships, nullability, and polymorphic data. You will learn how to build practical schemas that communicate clear contracts between clients and servers, a core skill in modern Software Development.

You will also study server implementation, including resolvers, the GraphQL execution model, connecting to data sources, mutations, validation, error handling, pagination, filtering, sorting, authentication context, and authorization rules. Production-focused lessons cover avoiding N+1 queries, improving performance, integrating clients, using caching strategies, and selecting useful tooling.

By the end of GraphQL Fundamentals, you will be able to evaluate API requirements, design a complete GraphQL API, and reason clearly about the tradeoffs behind your implementation choices. You will leave prepared to build, query, and reason about modern GraphQL APIs with stronger architectural judgment and more practical Software Development confidence.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Foundations

3 lessons

Lesson 1: Why GraphQL Exists

18 min Preview
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains why GraphQL was created and what problems it was designed to solve. Learners compare traditional REST-style API consumption with GraphQL’s client-drive…

Lesson 2: GraphQL vs REST: Choosing the Right API Style

20 min
This lesson compares GraphQL and REST as API styles so learners can choose the right approach for a product, team, or integration. It explains how each style models resources, requests, responses, ver…

Lesson 3: Understanding the GraphQL Type System

21 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains how the GraphQL type system turns an API into a clear contract between clients and servers. You will learn how object types, scalar types, lists, non-n…

Query Language

4 lessons

Lesson 4: Writing Your First GraphQL Queries

19 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin teaches the practical basics of writing GraphQL queries: selecting fields, nesting related data, passing arguments, naming operations, and reading the response …

Lesson 5: Fields, Arguments, Aliases, and Operation Names

20 min
This lesson teaches the core building blocks of a GraphQL query: fields, arguments, aliases, and operation names. Learners will practice reading a query as a precise request for a response shape, then…

Lesson 6: Variables and Reusable Query Patterns

18 min
This lesson shows how GraphQL variables turn hard-coded query values into reusable, safer operation inputs. Students learn the syntax for declaring variables, passing JSON variable values, applying de…

Lesson 7: Fragments for Maintainable Queries

19 min
Fragments make GraphQL queries easier to read, reuse, and maintain when the same field selection appears in multiple places. In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains named fragments, inline fr…

Schema Design

4 lessons

Lesson 8: Designing a Practical GraphQL Schema

23 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin shows how to design a practical GraphQL schema that is useful to client teams, stable enough to evolve, and clear enough for backend teams to implement. The foc…

Lesson 9: Object Types, Scalars, Enums, and Lists

20 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains the core building blocks of a GraphQL schema: object types, scalar fields, enums, and lists. You will learn how these pieces describe the shape of an A…

Lesson 10: Relationships, Nullability, and Schema Contracts

22 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains how GraphQL schemas model relationships between objects and how those choices become a contract between API producers and clients. Learners will practi…

Lesson 11: Interfaces, Unions, and Polymorphic Data

21 min
This lesson explains how GraphQL models polymorphic data with interfaces and unions . Learners will see when several object types should share a contract, when a field should return one of several unr…

Server Implementation

2 lessons

Lesson 12: Resolvers and the GraphQL Execution Model

24 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains how GraphQL servers turn a validated operation into real data. You will learn what resolvers are, how GraphQL walks a query field by field, and how par…

Lesson 13: Connecting Resolvers to Data Sources

23 min
Resolvers are where a GraphQL schema becomes a working API. In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin shows how resolver functions connect fields in the schema to real data sources such as databases, RE…

Changing Data

2 lessons

Lesson 14: Mutations and Input Types

22 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains how GraphQL mutations change server-side data and why they are modeled separately from read-only queries. You will learn how mutation fields are define…

Lesson 15: Validation, Errors, and Response Shape

20 min
This lesson explains how GraphQL validates mutation operations before execution, how request and execution errors appear in responses, and how nullability controls the final response shape. Learners w…

API Patterns

2 lessons

Lesson 16: Pagination, Filtering, and Sorting

23 min
This lesson teaches practical GraphQL API patterns for returning large collections without overwhelming clients or servers. Students learn when to use offset pagination, why cursor pagination is commo…

Lesson 17: Authentication Context and Authorization Rules

22 min
In this lesson, Professor Daniel Martin explains how authentication information enters a GraphQL server and how authorization decisions should be enforced across resolvers, services, and fields. You w…

Production Readiness

2 lessons

Lesson 18: Avoiding N+1 Queries and Performance Pitfalls

24 min
This lesson explains why GraphQL APIs are especially vulnerable to N+1 query problems and how to prevent them before they become production incidents. Students learn to identify resolver patterns that…

Lesson 19: Client Integration, Caching, and Tooling

23 min
This lesson connects a production GraphQL API to real client applications. Professor Daniel Martin explains how clients send operations, manage variables, handle loading and error states, and use gene…

Capstone

1 lesson

Lesson 20: Designing and Evaluating a Complete GraphQL API

25 min
In this capstone lesson, students bring together schema design, querying, mutations, resolver thinking, pagination, authorization, error handling, and API evolution by evaluating a complete GraphQL AP…
About Your Instructor
Professor Daniel Martin

Professor Daniel Martin

Professor Daniel Martin guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.