Which mechanism acts as a reverse proxy to receive API calls and route them to appropriate services?

Which mechanism acts as a reverse proxy to receive API calls and route them to appropriate services?

• A. API Gateway
• B. Forward/Transparent Proxy (Outbound traffic)
• C. Web Application Firewall
• D. NAT Gateways

Answer: (A)

An API gateway is the mechanism that acts as a reverse proxy to receive API calls and route them to the appropriate services. It sits at the edge of a system and handles client requests by forwarding them to the correct microservice or backend, often performing additional API-specific tasks such as authentication, rate limiting, load balancing, request/response transformation, caching, and integration with service discovery. This centralizes API management and ensures clients interact with a single entry point.

The other options don’t fit as the primary mechanism for API routing. A forward or transparent proxy handles general outbound traffic rather than API-specific routing. A web application firewall focuses on inspecting and blocking malicious traffic rather than directing requests to the correct backend services. NAT gateways perform address translation and do not route client requests to particular internal services.