[name] asked: The neighboring team changed the field type from string to number. How will our service behave when trying to process such a field?

If the neighboring team changed the field type from string to number, the behavior of your service when processing such a field depends on how data validation and parsing are implemented.

• If the service expects a string and tries to process the number directly as a string, a type error or incorrect processing may occur.
• If the service uses strict typing or validation schemas (e.g., JSON Schema), a type mismatch will throw an exception or validation error.
• If the service attempts to convert incoming data, the number may be automatically converted to a string (e.g., via toString), and processing will succeed.

It is recommended to:

• Check the contract (API specification) and coordinate changes with the neighboring team.
• Add tests that verify the handling of new data types.
• Use validation schemas for explicit type control.

Thus, without adaptation, the service may either fail with an error or process the data incorrectly.