Do External API Responses run through router ?

See docs and also https://medium.com/@devlob/creating-apis-in-laravel-5-5-using-api-resources-9850c1b70efb

The article should help you understand the general flow.

The submit routes to a post controller that initiates an HttpRequest post to the 3rd party API which returns some response.

If you're using curl or guzzle to make that request to the 3rd party API from within the controller, then no, the response doesn't go through a route. It's returned directly to whatever initiated the request (guzzle/curl/etc).

For instance:

$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client();
$res = $client->request('GET', 'https://api.github.com/user', [
    'auth' => ['user', 'pass']
]);

$result = $res->getBody(); // response is available directly from the guzzle client that initiated the request

@Cronix thanks. How does this bypass the htaccess that has all routes directed to index.php if it uses the same port as the web server ?

Routes only affect http calls to YOUR server/app, not ones you are hitting externally. The only time it wouldn't is if this API is using some sort of callback, but you would know that because you'd need to specify the callback url on your server for it to respond to.

In the example I posted, the guzzle client is making a request to an external server and receiving the result directly. It doesn't even leave the method you're currently in. It has nothing to do with your routes. Think of guzzle as sort of a mini browser. It makes the request, and receives the response directly.