REST API architecture was put forward by Dr. Roy Fielding in his 2000 doctoral dissertation. This architecture has been around for roughly 23 years and most of the popular APIs follow it. Despite this widespread use, most programmers are still unaware of the six underlying characteristics that define a REST or RESTful API.

You can ensure you are not among that list of programmers by going through Dr. Fielding’s 180-page dissertation. Or better yet, spend the next few minutes reading this very article where we go over this list of characteristics and discuss why each one is important. We can assure you the latter option is more fun and time friendly

Basics of a REST API

Before we dive into the six characteristics, it is useful to understand how REST APIs work. Feel free to skip this section if you have already used REST APIs before.

Before we dive into the six characteristics, it is useful to understand how REST APIs work. Feel free to skip this section if you have already used REST APIs before.

REST architecture (and in turn the REST API) revolves around the concept of resources. A resource can be any data that is stored on the server. For Facebook, a resource might be status updates. Similarly for Twitter, a resource might be tweets. You perform actions on these resources. Moreover, each resource has a dedicated endpoint that allows you to interact with the resource (reading, deleting, updating, etc.).

Before we dive into the six characteristics, it is useful to understand how REST APIs work. Feel free to skip this section if you have already used REST APIs before.

Before we dive into the six characteristics, it is useful to understand how REST APIs work. Feel free to skip this section if you have already used REST APIs before.

REST architecture (and in turn the REST API) revolves around the concept of resources. A resource can be any data that is stored on the server. For Facebook, a resource might be status updates. Similarly for Twitter, a resource might be tweets. You perform actions on these resources. Moreover, each resource has a dedicated endpoint that allows you to interact with the resource (reading, deleting, updating, etc.).

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