Messing around with an API in your off time is important because it means you can change contexts and get up to speed more quickly without having to learn everything from scratch on the job, and of course context is everything. I&#x27;m probably not going to be super into a social network&#x27;s API but for things that are server-related? Damn right I want to know how build 30 servers with just a POST request, a for loop, and some json data. You can then apply that knowledge to something a bit more boring you might get hired for if needed, like a startup that needs someone who can answer questions about how to properly use their API to make a number of POST requests to send hundreds of orders of glitter to various companies who have not sent a response to said persons job application... in theory of course.