REST API Design Best Practices: Ultimate Guide for Designing and Developing a REST API

In this article, we will discuss the important best practices for building robust and scalable REST APIs. Whether you are building a new REST API or improving an existing one, this guide will help you design APIs that adhere to REST principles and deliver a better developer and user experience.

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What is REST?

REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer. Let’s understand the meaning of each word in the REST acronym:

• State: Refers to data.
• REpresentational: Refers to data formats (such as XML, JSON, YAML, HTML, etc.).
• Transfer: This refers to carrying data between the consumer and provider using the HTTP protocol.

Best Practices for Designing RESTful APIs

1. Use Nouns for Resource Identification

The fundamental concept of a REST-based system is the resource. A resource is anything you want to expose to the outside world through your application.