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Featured RESTful API Design: Best Practices and Standards

Administrator admin API Intermediate Jan 09, 2026 12:41 AM 3 views

REST Principles

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for designing web services. Follow these principles for well-designed APIs.

1. Use Proper HTTP Methods

GET    /api/users          // Retrieve all users
GET    /api/users/123      // Retrieve specific user
POST   /api/users          // Create new user
PUT    /api/users/123      // Update entire user
PATCH  /api/users/123      // Partial update
DELETE /api/users/123      // Delete user

2. Use Proper HTTP Status Codes

200 OK              // Successful GET, PUT, PATCH
201 Created         // Successful POST
204 No Content      // Successful DELETE
400 Bad Request     // Invalid input
401 Unauthorized    // Authentication required
404 Not Found       // Resource doesn't exist
500 Internal Server Error

3. Consistent URL Structure

// Good
GET /api/users
GET /api/users/123
GET /api/users/123/posts

// Bad
GET /api/getUsers
GET /api/user/123

4. Pagination

GET /api/users?page=1&limit=20

Response:
{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 100,
    "pages": 5
  }
}

5. Error Response Format

{
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "message": "Invalid input data",
    "details": [...]
  }
}

Security Best Practices

  • Use HTTPS in production
  • Implement authentication (JWT, OAuth)
  • Validate and sanitize all inputs
  • Implement rate limiting
  • Use CORS properly

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