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Building Scalable APIs with Laravel 11

Learn architectural patterns and best practices for creating maintainable, high-performance REST APIs using Laravel's latest features.

Sarah Chen
January 5, 2026
12 min read

Building Scalable APIs with Laravel 11

Laravel 11 introduces powerful features that make building scalable, maintainable APIs easier than ever.

Project Structure

php
1app/
2├── Http/
3│   ├── Controllers/Api/V1/
4│   ├── Requests/
5│   ├── Resources/
6│   └── Middleware/
7├── Services/
8├── Repositories/
9└── Models/

API Versioning

php
1Route::prefix('v1')->group(function () {
2    Route::apiResource('users', UserController::class);
3    Route::apiResource('posts', PostController::class);
4});

Request Validation

php
1class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest
2{
3    public function rules(): array
4    {
5        return [
6            'name' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
7            'email' => ['required', 'email', 'unique:users'],
8            'password' => ['required', 'min:8', 'confirmed'],
9        ];
10    }
11}

API Resources

php
1class UserResource extends JsonResource
2{
3    public function toArray($request): array
4    {
5        return [
6            'id' => $this->id,
7            'name' => $this->name,
8            'email' => $this->email,
9            'created_at' => $this->created_at->toISOString(),
10        ];
11    }
12}

Repository Pattern

php
1interface UserRepositoryInterface
2{
3    public function find(int $id): ?User;
4    public function create(array $data): User;
5}
6
7class UserRepository implements UserRepositoryInterface
8{
9    public function find(int $id): ?User
10    {
11        return User::with(['posts', 'profile'])->find($id);
12    }
13}

Rate Limiting

php
1RateLimiter::for('api', function (Request $request) {
2    return Limit::perMinute(60)->by($request->user()?->id ?: $request->ip());
3});

Caching

php
1public function getPopularPosts(): Collection
2{
3    return Cache::remember('popular_posts', 3600, function () {
4        return Post::where('views', '>', 1000)
5            ->orderBy('views', 'desc')
6            ->limit(10)
7            ->get();
8    });
9}

Conclusion

Building scalable APIs with Laravel 11 requires thoughtful architecture and adherence to best practices.

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