REST (Representational State Transfer)

What is REST?

Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style - not a protocol - used to design scalable and interoperable web APIs. RESTful APIs expose resources (such as users, orders, or files) identified by URLs and manipulate them using standard HTTP methods. REST emphasizes simplicity, statelessness, and uniform interfaces.

Why REST matters

REST is widely adopted because it:

• Leverages ubiquitous web standards (HTTP, URLs)
• Is simple to understand and implement
• Scales well for web and cloud applications
• Works naturally with JSON payloads
• Is supported by virtually all platforms and tools

REST has become the de facto standard for public and internal APIs.

Core REST principles

A RESTful design typically follows these constraints:

• Client-server separation - clear responsibilities
• Statelessness - each request contains all required context
• Cacheability - responses can be cached where appropriate
• Uniform interface - consistent resource handling
• Layered system - intermediaries (proxies, gateways) allowed

Adhering to these principles improves scalability and reliability.

REST resources and HTTP methods

REST maps actions to HTTP verbs:

• GET - retrieve a resource
• POST - create a new resource
• PUT - replace a resource
• PATCH - update part of a resource
• DELETE - remove a resource

Resources are typically represented as JSON.

REST vs SOAP

Aspect	REST	SOAP
Type	Architectural style	Protocol
Payload	JSON (commonly)	XML
Complexity	Lower	Higher
Contract	Optional	Strong (WSDL)
Modern APIs	Preferred	Legacy/enterprise

REST favors flexibility and performance; SOAP favors strict contracts and enterprise features.

REST and security

REST APIs are commonly secured using:

• TLS (HTTPS) for transport security
• Token-based authentication (OAuth, JWT)
• API keys (basic scenarios)
• Rate limiting and input validation

Security is enforced outside REST itself, via standards and controls.

REST in enterprise and cloud environments

Organizations use REST for:

• Public and partner APIs
• Microservices communication
• SaaS integrations
• Mobile and web backends
• Headless CMS delivery (including Strapi)

REST integrates well with API gateways and cloud-native tooling.

REST limitations

REST may be less suitable when:

• Strict contracts and transactions are required
• Real-time, bidirectional communication is needed
• Over/under-fetching becomes problematic (GraphQL may help)

REST is often complemented by other approaches.

Common misconceptions

• "REST is a protocol"
• "Any HTTP API is RESTful"
• "REST requires JSON"
• "REST handles authentication by itself"