🛠️ Common Coding & API Issues: Troubleshooting Guide

🛠️ Common Coding & API Issues: Troubleshooting Guide

Overview
If you're encountering issues while working with our code examples or integrating with our API, you're in the right place. This article outlines the most common problems developers run into and provides steps to help resolve them quickly.

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🔐 1. Authentication Errors

Symptoms:

• Receiving a 401 Unauthorized or 403 Forbidden response.

• API requests work in one environment (e.g., Postman) but not another.

Common Causes & Fixes:

• Ensure your API key or token is active and not expired.

• Double-check that your credentials are being passed in the correct format (e.g., header vs. URL).

• If using OAuth, confirm that your access token hasn’t expired and your scopes are correctly defined.

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📦 2. Incorrect API Request Structure

Symptoms:

• Receiving a 400 Bad Request error.

• Response includes a message like: “Missing required parameter” or “Invalid payload.”

Common Causes & Fixes:

• Validate your JSON structure; malformed or trailing commas can cause errors.

• Use the API documentation to confirm the correct endpoint, method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), and required parameters.

• Ensure you’re using the correct Content-Type header:
  Content-Type: application/json

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🔁 3. Rate Limiting

Symptoms:

• Receiving a 429 Too Many Requests error.

Common Causes & Fixes:

• You’ve exceeded the number of allowed requests per minute or hour.

• Implement retry logic with exponential backoff.

• Check the Retry-After header in the response to determine when to retry.

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🧱 4. CORS Issues (Client-Side JavaScript)

Symptoms:

• Browser console shows a CORS policy error.

Common Causes & Fixes:

• The API is not configured to accept requests from your frontend’s domain.

• If possible, use a backend proxy server to make the request.

• Contact your API administrator to whitelist your domain.

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🕵️ 5. Environment Mismatch

Symptoms:

• API requests work in staging but not in production.

Common Causes & Fixes:

• Verify that you’re using the correct base URL (e.g., api.example.com vs staging-api.example.com).

• Double-check that environment-specific credentials are being used.

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🧪 6. Testing & Debugging Tips

• Use tools like Postman or cURL to isolate the issue outside of your application.

• Enable verbose logging (if available) in your code to capture full error details.

• Refer to our API Documentation for examples and schema references.

• Don’t forget to sanitize sensitive data before sharing logs with support.

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📬 Still Stuck?

If you've reviewed the suggestions above and are still experiencing issues, feel free to reach out to our technical support team. Please include:

• The full error message or response payload.

• The endpoint you’re calling and the request method.

• A timestamp (with timezone) of when the issue occurred.

Need faster help? Use our live chat or submit a ticket via the “Developer Support” category.