Stateless Authentication

Stateless authentication is a security approach where the server does not store session information about authenticated users. Instead, each request from a client includes all necessary authentication data, typically in the form of a token like a JSON Web Token (JWT). This allows servers to validate requests independently without maintaining server-side session state, improving scalability and performance in distributed systems.

Also known as: Token-based authentication, JWT authentication, Bearer token authentication, Sessionless authentication, Stateless auth

Why learn Stateless Authentication?

Developers should use stateless authentication when building scalable, distributed applications such as microservices architectures, APIs, or single-page applications (SPAs) where server-side session storage would be a bottleneck. It is ideal for scenarios requiring horizontal scaling, as it eliminates the need for session affinity or shared session stores, simplifying deployment across multiple servers or cloud instances.

Learning Resources

• docs: JWT.io Introduction
• docs: Auth0: Stateless Authentication
• docs: MDN Web Docs: Authentication
• video: YouTube: Stateless vs Stateful Authentication
• tutorial: FreeCodeCamp: JWT Authentication Tutorial