gRPC vs REST vs GraphQL: Communication Protocols in Go
Microservices communication uses gRPC for high-throughput internal RPCs via binary Protobuf serialization, REST for public HTTP APIs, and GraphQL for API Gateway aggregation. Selecting the right protocol depends on payload size, streaming requirements, and client integration needs. Prerequisite: This is Part 12 of the System Design Masterclass. Previous parts built the reliability patterns — this part covers comparing communication protocols and data formats for microservice communication. What You’ll Learn That AI Won’t Tell You Protobuf Memory Allocations: Benchmarking struct reflection versus compile-time Protobuf serialization memory footprints in Go. ConnectRPC net/http Integration: How to mount ConnectRPC handlers directly onto Go’s standard multiplexer without using intermediate gateway proxies. N+1 Query Resolution: Implementing the DataLoader batching pattern in Go to prevent sequential database queries. Overview of Communication Protocols Key Concept: gRPC, REST, and GraphQL operate on different layers of serialization, schema safety, and client-server coordination. gRPC enforces strict API contract schemas at compile time; REST provides loose, flexible JSON responses over standard HTTP semantics; GraphQL relies on schema-based graph models, allowing clients to fetch customized fields in a single query round trip. ...