---
title: "I need your responses to my API Documentation Survey"
date: 2014-12-12
description: "API documentation survey 1.0 → I need your responses to my API Documentation Survey 1.1 API doc..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2014/12/12/i-need-your-responses-to-my-api-documentation-survey/index.html
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# I need your responses to my API Documentation Survey

1. 1.0 → I need your responses to my API Documentation Survey
2. [1.1 API doc survey: The most popular type of APIs that technical writers document](https://idratherbewriting.com/2014/12/17/the-most-popular-type-of-apis-that-technical-writers-document/)
3. [1.2 API doc survey: The most common programming languages tech writers know](https://idratherbewriting.com/2014/12/22/most-common-programming-languages-tech-writers-in-my-survey-know/)
4. [1.3 API doc survey: Authoring tools preferred by API documentation writers](https://idratherbewriting.com/2014/12/24/authoring-tools-preferred-by-api-doc-writers-in-my-survey/)
5. [1.4 API doc survey: Do you create API doc by looking at source code?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/02/api-doc-survey-do-you-create-doc-by-looking-at-source-code/)
6. [1.5 API doc survey: Do you test out the API calls used in your doc yourself?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/02/api-doc-survey-do-you-test-out-the-api-calls-used-in-your-doc-yourself/)
7. [1.6 API doc survey: What IDE do you use?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/02/api-doc-survey-what-ide-do-you-use/)
8. [1.7 API doc survey result: Automating REST API documentation](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/06/api-doc-survey-automating-rest-api-documentation/)
9. [1.8 API doc survey result: How do you get the source files that contain code comments?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/06/api-doc-survey-result-how-do-you-get-the-source-files-that-contain-code-comments/)
10. [1.85 API doc survey result: How to learn what you need to know?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/07/api-doc-survey-result-how-to-learn-what-you-need-to-know/)
11. [1.9 API doc survey: Most challenging aspect of API documentation](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/12/api-doc-survey-most-challenging-aspect-of-api-documentation/)
12. [2.0 API doc survey: Do engineers write API doc in the source code?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/15/api-doc-survey-do-engineers-write-api-doc-in-the-source-code/)
13. [2.1 API doc survey: How much of your doc process is automated?](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/15/api-doc-survey-how-much-of-your-doc-process-is-automated/)
14. [2.2 Most important factor in APIs is complete and accurate documentation](https://idratherbewriting.com/2015/01/15/most-important-factor-in-apis-is-complete-and-accurate-documentation/)

I'm trying to gather more information about common practices with API documentation. I created an informal, [open survey about API Doc here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FYjPsjOcUws7vsJ_IV1G7huauiOT5cS1GmZqVBOf2lQ/).

It's an openly editable Google Doc with about 10 questions. You can see others' responses as you enter your own.

If you do any kind of API documentation, I need your participation in the survey. This will allow me to better generalize common practices with API documentation in preparation for some upcoming presentations and blog posts.

I made it open so you can read the existing responses. I chose to use a short-answer response format because practices with API documentation vary so widely -- one practice often varies from another, and they can't easily be captured with simple radio button responses.

I'm hoping to get 25 responses so that I have a decent enough sample size. Right now I have about 10 responses. Basically, when I give some API doc presentations and someone asks me a question like, "Do developers expect you to learn everything from reading the source code files alone?" I want to provide a realistic answer that extends beyond the scope of my own experience.

Again, here's the [link to my API Documentation survey](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FYjPsjOcUws7vsJ_IV1G7huauiOT5cS1GmZqVBOf2lQ/). Thanks.