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What Is REST API?

A REST API is a web API that follows the constraints of Representational State Transfer (REST), an architectural style that uses standard HTTP methods to access and manipulate resources.

Core principles

REST APIs are stateless, resource-oriented, and typically use HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) along with URLs to represent data resources, such as retrieving a list of products or a single listing by ID.

Why it’s the default for data APIs

REST’s simplicity and wide tooling support make it the most common format for delivering structured web data to customer systems, typically returning results in JSON.