Let's say I'm building a trivia game where users can create games with exactly 5 questions and 4 options (games, questions & options have their own database tables) for each question and assume I'm using a front-end MVC and a backend API.
I've always had this dilemma as to how the API should be designed.
Should I:
- have individual APIs for games, questions, and options
- keep the game as an aggregate of game details, questions, and options and let the backend receive this as a whole
The disadvantage of 1. is that when I'm creating a new game I'll need to make ton of API calls to setup all questions of the game and their options. However, when updating the game, or any of it's questions, it's a simple update API call for each resource we're dealing with.
The advantage of 2. is that the initial setup is a single API call. The disadvantage becomes apparent when updating the database: the backend has to iterate through all the questions and options again, even if it's only a single question that needs to be updated.
Am I missing any other aspect of these two design decisions?
