Understanding REST API Design

Best practices for designing clean, intuitive REST APIs:

Resource Naming:

• Use nouns, not verbs: /users not /getUsers
• Use plural forms: /articles not /article
• Nest for relationships: /users/123/posts

HTTP Methods:

• GET — Read resources
• POST — Create resources
• PUT — Full update
• PATCH — Partial update
• DELETE — Remove resources

Status Codes:

• 200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No Content
• 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 404 Not Found
• 500 Internal Server Error

Pagination: Use query params like ?page=2&limit=20 and return total count in response headers or body.