REST API

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for designing web APIs. RESTful APIs use standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH) to perform operations on resources identified by URLs. Key REST principles include: statelessness (each request contains all needed information), uniform interface (consistent URL patterns and HTTP methods), resource-based (operations are performed on named resources), and representation-oriented (resources can have multiple representations like JSON or XML). REST APIs are the most common integration pattern for modern web services, database platforms, and SaaS applications, providing a standardized way to create, read, update, and delete data programmatically.