RESTful API Design
RESTful API Design is a set of architectural principles and best practices for building web services that adhere to the Representational State Transfer (REST) style. It involves designing APIs that use standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources identified by URIs, with data typically exchanged in formats like JSON or XML. This approach emphasizes statelessness, cacheability, and a uniform interface to create scalable, maintainable, and interoperable web APIs.
Developers should learn RESTful API Design when building web services that need to be consumed by various clients (e.g., web apps, mobile apps, or third-party integrations), as it provides a standardized and widely understood way to expose data and functionality. It is particularly useful for creating APIs that are scalable, easy to debug due to clear HTTP semantics, and compatible with modern web technologies, making it a foundational skill for backend and full-stack development in distributed systems.