Q: How do I monitor an API, not just a website?

A: Same principles, but validate the response body, not just the status code. An API can return 200 with a perfectly broken payload.

For each critical endpoint:
— Send a real request (the right method, headers, and auth token a client would use)
— Assert on the response: status code, a required JSON field, and ideally a specific value
— Check response time against a threshold, since a slow API breaks callers as surely as a down one

Use a dedicated monitoring token, never a real user's credentials, and scope it to read-only or a safe test path so checks can't mutate production data.

Natural follow-up: for multi-step APIs, chain a few calls (authenticate, then fetch) so you test the actual flow your consumers depend on, not one endpoint in isolation.

Got a question? Drop it in the comments.