albert Hong

I am currently learning Back-End design, and I am confused with the term Back-End API. My question is do I need to have a webserver? That is the Browser send a http request to the Webserver, based on the URL, the Webserver will execute the WEB API and route the request to it and send back the response received from the WEB API to the browser. If so, what are the differences from the WebServer to execute a CGI in the traditional architecture?

If this is not the case, is the WEB API a standalone server/application that can process the HTTP request and send back the response to the browser? Thank you very much for clarifying...