REST is all about endpoints that perform specific queries or operations. This works fine, but the client is limited by which queries have been exposed. What if the backend exposed the data, but the client could decide which subset of data it needed, and how to interact with that data? That’s the promise of GraphQL — simplify the back-end, give the client more power, and make it easier to evolve APIs.

When we take this approach, we also have more flexibility on the backend; we can use one or many different microservices together to provide a unified API. In this talk, we’ll explain what GraphQL is, how it works, and look at how easy it is to build GraphQL APIs using MicroProfile GraphQL.

Jakarta Tech Talk - GraphQL Distilled