ASP.NET Core: Building High-Performance Web Applications and APIs
ASP.NET Core: Building High-Performance Web Applications and APIs A practical guide to ASP.NET Core — the cross-platform framework for building REST APIs, MVC applications, and backend services on .NET, covering architecture, minimal APIs, middleware, performance, and modern patterns. Table of Contents Introduction Architecture Overview Minimal APIs MVC and Controllers Middleware Pipeline Dependency Injection Configuration and Options Authentication and Authorization Performance Features Testing and Observability Quick Reference Table Conclusion Introduction ASP.NET Core is a free, open-source, cross-platform framework for building web apps, APIs, and backend services. It's a ground-up rewrite of the original ASP.NET, designed around three priorities: Performance — it's consistently one of the fastest mainstream web frameworks in independent benchmarks (e.g., TechEmpower). Modularity — you opt into only the middleware and services your app actually needs, instead of a fixed, heavyweight pipeline. Cross-platform — runs identically on Windows, Linux, and macOS, and deploys to containers, serverless, or bare metal. This guide covers the core building blocks you'll use in almost any ASP.NET Core project, from a five-line minimal API to a full MVC application with authentication and background services. 1. Architecture Overview Every ASP.NET Core app starts from a unified entry point — Program.cs — using the minimal hosting model introduced in .NET 6. var builder = WebApplication . CreateBuilder ( args ); // Register services (dependency injection container) builder . Services . AddControllers (); builder . Services . AddEndpointsApiExplorer (); builder . Services . AddSwaggerGen (); var app = builder . Build (); // Configure the HTTP request pipeline (middleware) if ( app . Environment . IsDevelopment ()) { app . UseSwagger (); app . UseSwaggerUI (); } app . UseHttpsRedirection (); app . UseAuthorization (); app . MapControllers (); app . Run (); Two phases matter here: