RESTful Interview Questions and Answers for 10 years experience

1. What is REST?

   • Answer: REST, or Representational State Transfer, is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It's based on a client-server model where clients make requests to a server, which returns representations of resources in various formats (like JSON or XML). Key constraints include statelessness, cacheability, and a uniform interface.

2. Explain the six constraints of REST.

   • Answer: The six constraints are: 1. Client-Server: Separation of concerns; 2. Stateless: Each request contains all necessary information; 3. Cacheable: Responses can be cached; 4. Uniform Interface: Standardized interactions using standard methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE); 5. Layered System: Clients don't know if they're interacting directly with the server or an intermediary; 6. Code on Demand (optional): Server can extend client functionality by transferring executable code.

3. What are the HTTP methods used in RESTful APIs? Explain each.

   • Answer: GET (retrieves a resource), POST (creates a new resource), PUT (updates an existing resource), DELETE (deletes a resource), PATCH (partially modifies a resource), HEAD (retrieves metadata), OPTIONS (describes communication options).

4. What is HATEOAS? Why is it important?

   • Answer: HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State) is a constraint of REST where the API responses include links to related resources, guiding the client on how to interact with the system. It makes the API self-documenting and adaptable to changes, enhancing discoverability and reducing coupling between client and server.

5. Explain the difference between REST and SOAP.

   • Answer: REST is lightweight and uses simple protocols like HTTP, while SOAP is more complex and uses XML extensively. REST is platform-agnostic, while SOAP often relies on specific technologies. REST is simpler to implement and maintain, while SOAP offers more robust features like security and transactions, but at a higher cost of complexity.

6. What are the different status codes in HTTP responses and their significance?

   • Answer: 1xx (Informational), 2xx (Successful), 3xx (Redirection), 4xx (Client Error), 5xx (Server Error). Each code indicates the outcome of the request, helping clients understand and handle the response appropriately. For example, 200 OK, 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error.

7. How do you handle errors in a RESTful API?

   • Answer: Use appropriate HTTP status codes to signal errors. Provide detailed error messages in the response body (often JSON) including error codes, descriptions, and potentially helpful information for debugging. Maintain consistency in error handling across the API.

8. What are RESTful API design best practices?

   • Answer: Use consistent naming conventions, follow HTTP verb semantics, design for scalability and maintainability, use proper versioning, implement robust error handling, secure your API (authentication, authorization), document your API thoroughly, use caching where appropriate.

9. Explain how you would design a RESTful API for a blog system.

   • Answer: Resources might include posts, users, and comments. Endpoints would handle CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) for each resource using appropriate HTTP methods. For example, GET /posts, POST /posts, PUT /posts/{id}, DELETE /posts/{id}. Consider relationships between resources (e.g., a post has many comments).

Thank you for reading our blog post on 'RESTful Interview Questions and Answers for 10 years experience'.We hope you found it informative and useful.Stay tuned for more insightful content!