Introduction to REST APIs

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for building web APIs. A REST API uses HTTP methods and URLs to provide a standard way for applications to communicate over the internet.

REST APIs are stateless, meaning each request from the client contains all the information the server needs to fulfill it.

Example

# RESTful API for a Blog
# Resources: /posts, /users, /comments

# GET    /posts          — get all posts
# GET    /posts/{id}     — get one post
# POST   /posts          — create a post
# PUT    /posts/{id}     — replace a post
# PATCH  /posts/{id}     — partially update
# DELETE /posts/{id}     — delete a post

# Example request using curl
curl -X GET https://api.example.com/posts \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your-token"

# Example response
{
  "data": [
    { "id": 1, "title": "Hello World", "author": "Alice" },
    { "id": 2, "title": "REST APIs",   "author": "Bob" }
  ],
  "meta": { "total": 2, "page": 1, "per_page": 10 }
}

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Related Resources

REST API Reference

Complete tag & property list

REST API How-To Guides

Step-by-step practical guides

REST API Exercises

Practice what you've learned