Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) NetworkingAutomation and ProgrammabilityHard
A network automation engineer is deploying a new service that provides network telemetry data to an analytics platform. This service needs to expose an API that allows the analytics platform to subscribe to real-time events and receive data pushes whenever a significant network event occurs (e.g., interface status change, high utilization). Which type of API interaction model is best suited for this real-time, event-driven data pushing?
- ARESTful API (Request/Response)
- BBatch Processing API
- CPolling API
- DWebhook/Callback API
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Webhook/Callback API
A Webhook/Callback API is ideal for real-time event-driven data pushing. Instead of the client constantly polling, the server (network device/service) proactively sends an HTTP POST request to a pre-registered URL (the webhook) on the client whenever a specified event occurs.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. A standard RESTful API typically uses a request/response model, where the client initiates each data retrieval, not suitable for server-initiated pushes.
- B. Batch processing APIs are designed for processing large volumes of data at scheduled intervals, not for real-time event notification.
- C. Polling requires the client to repeatedly ask for updates, which is inefficient for real-time, event-driven scenarios.
Webhook/Callback API
A Webhook (also known as a web callback or HTTP push API) is a method of augmenting or altering the behavior of a web page or web application with custom callbacks. These callbacks are triggered by specific events and send data to a URI specified by the client, enabling real-time, event-driven communication.
- Server-initiated communication.
- Real-time event notification.
- Client registers a URL (endpoint) to receive data.
- Often uses HTTP POST to deliver event data.
Memory trick: POLL for STATUS, REST for RESOURCES, WEBHOOK for EVENTS, BATCH for BULK.