A Practical Guide to RESTful API Design

At its heart, RESTful API design is an architectural approach for creating web services that talk to each other using HTTP. Think of it as the central nervous system for modern software, providing a standard, predictable way for different applications to exchange data seamlessly. Getting these principles right from the start is a total game-changer for building products that can scale and be maintained long-term.

Building the Foundation of Modern Applications

Imagine a well-designed API as the blueprint for a skyscraper. If the foundation is solid, the structure can handle new floors, adapt to changing needs, and stay stable for decades. But if you make poor architectural choices early on, you're setting yourself up for cracks, expensive repairs, and what we call technical debt in the software world. A poorly designed API can become a bottleneck, slowing down innovation and making every new feature a monumental effort. This is why investing time in a solid design up front is not a luxury; it's a strategic necessity.

This is where thoughtful RESTful API design comes in. It creates a common language that your frontend (like a mobile app) and backend services can both speak and understand. This separation is absolutely crucial for staying agile and scaling your operations, as it allows different teams to work on their parts of the puzzle independently and innovate much faster. This modular approach means your web team can experiment with a new user interface while the mobile team builds a native app, both consuming the same reliable, well-documented API.

Why Strong API Design Matters for Startups

For startups and growing teams, the payoff from a deliberate API strategy is huge and immediate. A well-structured API isn't just a "nice-to-have" for engineers; it's a core business asset that directly impacts how quickly you can ship features, pivot when needed, and build a reliable product that your users can depend on. It also serves as a potential new revenue stream, enabling partnerships and integrations that would otherwise be impossible.

The real-world business outcomes are what truly matter:

• Faster Development Cycles: When your API endpoints are logical and predictable, developers don't have to waste time figuring out how the system works. They can just get on with building great features. Clear documentation, consistent naming conventions, and predictable behavior reduce the cognitive load on engineering teams, accelerating time-to-market.
• Improved Product Reliability: A consistent design means fewer bugs and a system that's far easier to troubleshoot when things go wrong. When endpoints behave as expected, and error messages are clear and actionable, developers can quickly identify and fix issues. The result is a more stable and pleasant user experience, which directly impacts user retention.
• Future-Proofing Your Product: Great design thinks ahead. It makes it simpler to add new functionality or plug into third-party services down the road without having to tear everything down and start over. A scalable API can accommodate new business requirements, increased traffic, and evolving technologies, ensuring your product remains relevant and competitive.

For over two decades, RESTful design has been the dominant force in the API world. It boasts a massive 93.4% adoption rate among developers globally, cementing its status as the go-to standard for building scalable web services. The global API management market, which is overwhelmingly powered by RESTful APIs, is currently valued at $10.32 billion and is on track to hit an incredible $37.43 billion by 2034. You can explore more API usage statistics on sqmagazine.co.uk.

Understanding the Core Principles of REST

Before we can even start talking about endpoints and status codes, we need to get one thing straight: REST isn't a strict protocol like SOAP. It's an architectural style. Think of it less as a rigid set of rules and more as a philosophy—a collection of guiding constraints that, when you follow them, naturally lead to web services that are scalable, predictable, and easy to work with. These principles were defined by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation and have stood the test of time because they are based on the very principles that made the World Wide Web successful.

Let’s use an analogy. Imagine your API is a massive, public library. For it to run smoothly, both the librarians (your servers) and the patrons (the clients) need to operate under a shared set of guidelines. Those guidelines are the core principles of REST. They ensure everyone can find what they need without the whole system descending into chaos. Each principle contributes to a system that is robust, efficient, and adaptable.

Client-Server Separation

First up is the absolute bedrock of REST: Client-Server separation. The client, which is responsible for the user interface and experience, should be a completely separate concern from the server, which handles data storage and the heavy lifting of business logic. All the client needs to know is the URI of a resource; how the server actually stores or processes that data is none of its business. The server provides the data, and the client presents it. This clear division of labor is fundamental.

This decoupling is a huge win. It means your frontend team building a sleek mobile app and your backend team managing the databases can evolve their systems independently. As long as that API "contract" remains stable, one team can update, scale, or even completely replace their stack without breaking the other. For example, the backend could migrate from a monolithic architecture to microservices, or change database technologies, without the client application ever knowing the difference.

Statelessness

Next, we have the crucial principle of Statelessness. This means every single request sent from a client to the server must contain all the information needed for the server to understand and fulfill it. The server doesn't hold onto any context or "session state" between requests. Authentication tokens, user IDs, and any other necessary context must be part of each request.

Think of it like ordering a coffee at a busy cafe. Each time you approach the counter, you state your complete order: "I'll have a large latte with oat milk." You don't just say "the usual" and assume the barista remembers you from five minutes ago. This makes the entire system incredibly reliable and much easier to scale. If one server gets swamped, your request can be routed to another one, which can fulfill it just as easily without needing any prior history. This stateless nature is key to horizontal scalability, allowing you to add more servers effortlessly.

Cacheability

In today's world, performance is everything. That’s where Cacheability comes into play. A well-designed RESTful API should explicitly tell clients whether a response can be cached or not. This is typically done using HTTP headers like Cache-Control, Expires, and ETag. If a response is marked as cacheable, the client can hang onto that data for a while and reuse it without having to ask the server for it again.

This simple concept drastically cuts down the number of requests hitting your servers. The benefits are massive: lower server load, decreased latency for the user, and an application that just feels faster. It’s like a library patron checking out a popular book—they keep it for the loan period instead of coming back to the library to read the same page every single day. Caching can happen at multiple levels: in the client's browser, at an intermediary proxy, or within a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

A well-designed cache is one of the most effective tools for improving API performance. By allowing clients and intermediaries to store responses, you can significantly reduce network traffic and improve response times, which is critical for user satisfaction.

The Six Constraints of RESTful Design

To make these concepts easier to digest, here's a quick reference table breaking down the six core principles that truly define a RESTful architecture.

Principle	Core Idea	Why It Matters for Your Business
Client-Server	Separate the UI (client) from the data storage (server).	Allows frontend and backend teams to work and scale independently, speeding up development.
Stateless	Each request from the client must be self-contained.	Improves reliability and scalability, as any server can handle any request.
Cacheable	Responses must declare if they can be stored by the client.	Drastically improves performance and reduces server load, leading to a better user experience.
Uniform Interface	A single, consistent way for clients to interact with the API.	Simplifies the system, making it easier for new developers to understand and use your API.
Layered System	Intermediary servers can exist without the client's knowledge.	Adds flexibility for security (firewalls) and scaling (load balancers) without affecting clients.
Code on Demand (Optional)	The server can send executable code to the client.	Allows for extending client functionality dynamically, though it's less common today.

Following these constraints isn't just about adhering to an academic standard; it's about building an API that is robust, efficient, and built to last.

Uniform Interface

Now, let's zoom in on what is arguably the most central—and sometimes misunderstood—constraint: the Uniform Interface. The whole point is to simplify the architecture by creating one standardized way for any client to talk to the server. This principle is actually made up of four smaller constraints:

• Resource Identification: Every resource is uniquely identified by a stable URI, like /users/123. This is its permanent address.
• Resource Manipulation Through Representations: A client never interacts with the raw database record. Instead, it works with a representation of the resource, like a JSON object. The server might store data in a relational database, but it presents it to the client as JSON or XML.
• Self-Descriptive Messages: Every request and response contains enough information for the other party to understand it. This includes using the right HTTP method (like GET or POST) and headers (like Content-Type) to declare the format of the message body.
• Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS): This is a fancy way of saying that responses should include links that tell the client what they can do next. For example, a response for an order might include links to cancel or track that order, guiding the client through the application's workflow.

Layered System and Code on Demand

Finally, we have the Layered System and Code on Demand principles. A layered system simply means you can stick intermediaries—like load balancers, proxies, or security gateways—between the client and the server, and the client won't know the difference. The client only connects to the immediate layer. This gives you enormous flexibility for scaling and security, as you can add or remove layers without impacting the client or server.

Code on Demand is an optional constraint where the server can send executable code (like JavaScript) to the client to temporarily extend its functionality. While it was part of the original REST vision, you see it less often in modern REST APIs, as clients are typically feature-rich applications on their own. For a deeper dive into how this architectural style stacks up against others, check out our guide comparing GraphQL vs REST.

Designing Intuitive Resources and URIs

Great API design starts with a simple, powerful shift in mindset: treat everything as a resource. A resource is just the "noun" in your system—the core object everyone cares about. We're talking about users, products, orders, articles, you name it. This approach is the bedrock of a logical and predictable API that other developers will genuinely enjoy using. An API that is modeled around clear, well-defined resources is intuitive and requires minimal documentation to get started.

Before you touch a single line of code, the first job is to nail down these nouns. What are the key things a client will need to read, create, or change? A solid resource model is like a map of your application's world, making the API feel like a natural part of your product. Once you’ve identified your resources, you can give them addresses: the URIs.

The Art of Crafting Clean URIs

A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) isn't just a technical address. For an API, it is the user interface. Clean, self-explanatory URIs make your API a joy to explore, while confusing ones are a fast track to frustration and bugs. The goal is a URI structure that feels logical, hierarchical, and easy to read at a glance. It should provide developers with clues about the API's structure and capabilities.

Here are the hard-and-fast rules I always follow for clean URI design:

• Use Nouns, Not Verbs: The URI is for identifying what the resource is, not what you're doing to it. The "doing" part—the verb—is handled by the HTTP method (like GET, POST, or DELETE). This separation of concerns is a core tenet of REST.

  • Don't do this: /getAllUsers or /createNewProduct
  • Do this instead: /users or /products

• Plural Nouns are Your Friend: Always use plural nouns for collections of resources. This simple convention creates a consistent pattern across your entire API that developers can rely on. It makes the distinction between a collection and a specific item within that collection clear and unambiguous.

  • Avoid this: /user/123 or /product
  • This is better: /users/123 (for one specific user) and /products (for the whole collection).

• Show Relationships Through Hierarchy: When resources have a clear parent-child relationship, let the URI reflect that. It makes the connection between them instantly obvious. This hierarchical structure helps developers understand the data model without needing to consult documentation for every endpoint.

  • For example: /customers/5678/orders is far more intuitive for getting all orders for a specific customer than something clunky like /orders?customerId=5678.

"A well-designed URI is like a good signpost. It tells you exactly where you are and what you can expect to find there, without needing a separate map. This predictability is the hallmark of a great developer experience."

Practical Examples: From Bad to Good

Let's put this into practice. The difference between a confusing endpoint and a clear one often comes down to a few small tweaks grounded in these core REST principles. Applying these rules consistently across your entire API surface is what creates a coherent and professional product.

Poor URI Design	Why It's a Problem	Correct RESTful URI
/getPostComments?postId=42	Crams a verb ("get") into the URI and uses a query parameter for a clear hierarchical link.	/posts/42/comments
/delete-user/99	The action ("delete") is in the URI path. That's the job of the HTTP method!	DELETE /users/99
/product-list	The word "list" is redundant. The plural noun "products" already implies a collection.	/products

These might seem like minor details, but when you apply them consistently, they build an API that developers can use with confidence. This focus on clear resource modeling and URI structure is a fundamental aspect of effective restful api design, setting the stage for a system that's built to last.

2. HTTP Methods and Status Codes: Your API's Language

Think of your API's resources as the nouns—the things you can interact with. If that's the case, then HTTP methods are the verbs. They are the specific actions a client can take on those resources. Getting this right is fundamental to good restful api design.

It’s about more than just using GET to fetch data and POST for everything else. Each method communicates a clear intent and comes with built-in expectations about what will happen on the server. Nailing these distinctions is what separates a clunky, confusing API from one that developers genuinely enjoy using. This standard vocabulary is one of the most powerful features of HTTP, and leveraging it correctly is key.

Choosing the Right Verb for the Job

Let's walk through the primary HTTP methods and how they should be used in a RESTful world. Think of them as the core vocabulary for your API. When you use the right verb, your API becomes almost self-documenting.

• GET: This one is straightforward. Use GET exclusively for retrieving data. It could be a single resource (/users/123) or a whole collection (/users). Crucially, a GET request should never change anything on the server. This makes it a safe method, meaning you can call it a million times without causing any side effects.

• POST: When you need to create a brand-new resource, POST is your tool. Sending a POST request to a collection endpoint like /orders tells the server, "Hey, create a new order with this information." POST is not idempotent—if you send the exact same request twice, you'll end up with two new, distinct orders.

• PUT: Use PUT when you want to completely replace an existing resource. If a client sends a PUT request to /users/123 with a JSON body, they're saying, "Make the user with ID 123 look exactly like this." The entire resource is overwritten. PUT is idempotent; sending the same update request multiple times has the same outcome as sending it once.

• PATCH: What if you only want to change one small piece of a resource, like updating a user's email address? That's the perfect job for PATCH. It's designed for applying partial updates, leaving the rest of the resource untouched. This is more network-efficient than PUT when you only need to modify a few fields.

• DELETE: No surprises here. DELETE is used to remove a specific resource. A DELETE request to /users/123 is a clear instruction to get rid of that user for good.

What's This "Idempotent" Thing All About?

An operation is idempotent if you can run it over and over again with the same parameters and the result will be the same as the first time you ran it. This is a huge deal for building resilient APIs. If a client's request times out, they can safely retry an idempotent request (like a PUT or DELETE) without worrying about accidentally creating duplicates or causing other mayhem. This property is crucial for systems that need to be robust in the face of network failures.

A Practical Guide to HTTP Methods

Choosing the right HTTP verb is the foundation for any standard CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operation. Here’s a quick-reference table to help you map the action to the correct method.

HTTP Method	Action	Is Idempotent?	Example Use Case
GET	Read a resource or collection	Yes	Fetching the details for /products/45 or listing all items at /products.
POST	Create a new resource	No	Submitting a new order to the /orders collection.
PUT	Replace an existing resource	Yes	Updating a user's entire profile at /users/123 with a complete new object.
PATCH	Partially update a resource	No	Changing just the status field of an order at /orders/678.
DELETE	Remove a resource	Yes	Deleting a specific blog post located at /posts/99.

This simple alignment makes your API predictable and easy for other developers to understand and integrate with.

Telling the Client What Happened: HTTP Status Codes

Okay, so the client has sent a request using the right verb. Now what? Your server needs to respond clearly about the outcome. That's precisely what HTTP status codes are for. They are a universal language for communicating the result of an operation.

Using the right status code is a matter of respect for the developers using your API. It allows their code to react intelligently to success, failure, and everything in between, enabling robust error handling and conditional logic on the client side.

The codes are neatly organized into five main categories:

• 2xx Success: The request was a success! You'll often see 200 OK for a standard successful GET. When a POST creates a new resource, you should return a 201 Created. And for successful requests that don't need to return any data (like a DELETE), 204 No Content is perfect.

• 3xx Redirection: This tells the client it needs to look elsewhere. For example, 301 Moved Permanently indicates a resource has a new URI.

• 4xx Client Errors: The client messed up. This is a critical category. 400 Bad Request means the data sent was malformed. 404 Not Found is the classic "I can't find what you're asking for." For security, 401 Unauthorized means "you need to log in," while 403 Forbidden means "you're logged in, but you don't have permission to do this."

• 5xx Server Errors: Oops, something went wrong on our end. A 500 Internal Server Error tells the client the server hit an unexpected snag and couldn't complete their valid request. This indicates a bug or failure on the server, not a problem with the client's request.

By carefully pairing the right verbs (HTTP methods) with clear feedback (status codes), you create a robust and predictable communication channel. This isn't just a technical detail; it's a core part of professional restful api design that builds trust with your users.

Essential Strategies for API Versioning and Security

As your product finds its footing and starts to grow, one thing is certain: it will change. You'll add new features, refactor data models, and rethink old decisions. Your API has to keep up with this evolution without pulling the rug out from under your existing users.

This is where API versioning comes in. It's not just a technical detail; it’s a promise to your consumers that their apps won't suddenly shatter when you push an update. At the same time, as your API evolves, it must be protected. Security isn't a feature you tack on later—it's the foundation of trust. You absolutely need to know who is making a request (authentication) and what they’re allowed to do (authorization).

Navigating API Versioning

Picking a versioning strategy has ripple effects that last for years, so it's critical to get it right. At its core, versioning is just a way for the client to tell the server, "Hey, I was built to work with this version of the API." This prevents breaking changes from affecting existing clients who have not yet updated their integration.

You’ll generally run into three main ways to handle this.

1. URI Versioning: This is the most popular kid on the block for a reason—it’s dead simple. You just stick the version number right in the path, making it crystal clear which one you're hitting.

   • Example: GET /api/v1/users/123
   • The Good: It's incredibly explicit. You can see the version in your browser history, server logs, and it's easy to test. No mystery here.
   • The Bad: Purists will argue this approach violates a core REST principle. A URI should point to a timeless resource, and /v1/users/123 and /v2/users/123 are technically two different addresses for the same user.

2. Header Versioning: This method keeps the URI clean by tucking the version info into a custom HTTP header. Many see this as the "proper" RESTful way to do things.

   • Example: Accept: application/vnd.company.v1+json
   • The Good: Your URIs stay nice and tidy, pointing to the resource itself without any version clutter.
   • The Bad: It's less obvious. You can't just type a URL into the browser to test it, which can add a bit of friction for developers. It makes manual testing and debugging more complex.

3. Query Parameter Versioning: With this strategy, the version is passed as a simple parameter at the end of the URL. It’s easy to do, but it’s also the least-loved of the bunch.

   • Example: GET /api/users/123?version=1
   • The Good: Super easy to implement on the fly.
   • The Bad: It adds noise to the URI and can make your server's routing logic a bit messy. Plus, it's easy for a client to forget the parameter and accidentally hit the wrong (or default) version.

Fortifying Your API with Strong Security

Once you've mapped out how your API will grow, you have to lock it down. Think of authentication and authorization as the bouncer and the VIP list for your API—one checks the ID, the other checks if they're allowed in the room. This becomes even more critical as your architecture gets more complex; securing the API for microservices requires careful planning.

Here are the security patterns you’ll see out in the wild:

• API Keys: The most straightforward approach. You generate a unique key for a client, and they include it with every request (usually in a header like X-API-Key). They're perfect for identifying a specific application or service, but they don't tell you anything about the end-user behind the request. They are best suited for tracking usage and granting access to public data.

• JWT (JSON Web Tokens): JWTs are the modern standard for authenticating actual users. When a user logs in, your server creates a small, signed token that contains their identity and permissions. The client then sends this token back on every request to prove who they are. Because JWTs are self-contained and digitally signed, the server can verify their authenticity without needing to look up session information in a database, which aligns perfectly with the stateless nature of REST.

• OAuth 2.0: This is the gold standard for delegated authorization. It’s the framework that lets a user grant one application limited access to their data in another application, without ever sharing their password. Every time you see a "Log in with Google" or "Connect with Facebook" button, you're looking at OAuth 2.0 at work. It's a more complex protocol but is essential for any API that needs to support third-party integrations securely.

Choosing the right security mechanism depends entirely on what you're trying to do. API keys are great for machine-to-machine communication. JWTs are a perfect fit for single-page apps and mobile clients with logged-in users. OAuth 2.0 is the only real choice when you need to let third-party apps safely access your users' data.

By planning for both versioning and security from the start, you create an API that's built to last—one that can adapt to new demands while staying locked down and secure.

Building Production-Ready APIs

Getting an API from a good design to a production-ready service is all about sweating the details. This is where we focus on what it takes to handle real-world traffic, scale gracefully, and give developers a great experience. It’s not just about getting the endpoints right; it’s about building a robust system that won't buckle under pressure. This includes considerations like performance, error handling, and documentation.

One of the first hurdles you'll hit at scale is dealing with large amounts of data. Trying to return thousands of records in one go is a surefire way to kill your response times and overload your server. This is exactly why pagination is a must-have. By breaking down huge collections into smaller, manageable "pages," you let the client decide how much data they want at once, which makes a massive difference in performance.

Handling Large Datasets Gracefully

Good pagination makes your API predictable and fast. The two most common ways to tackle this are offset and cursor-based pagination. Offset is straightforward—you just use limit and offset parameters (like /products?limit=20&offset=40). It works, but it can start to crawl when you're dealing with massive datasets because databases struggle with large offset values.

Cursor-based pagination is a much better bet for performance, especially with data that changes often. It uses a unique pointer to the last item retrieved (e.g., /products?limit=20&after=cursor_xyz). This approach is more resilient and avoids the performance pitfalls of deep-offset queries, making it perfect for real-time feeds and infinite-scrolling interfaces.

Thinking about scale from day one saves you from painful refactoring down the road. An API that can deliver ten records as efficiently as ten million is the mark of a true professional.

Creating Standardized Error Responses

Things will break. It's inevitable. When they do, your API needs to communicate what went wrong clearly and consistently. A vague 500 Internal Server Error with no explanation is a developer’s worst nightmare. A standardized error response format is non-negotiable; it's what turns a frustrating bug into a quick fix.

A genuinely useful error object should always contain:

• An Error Code: A unique, machine-readable identifier like INVALID_API_KEY.
• A Human-Readable Message: A simple explanation, such as "The provided API key is not valid."
• A Link to Documentation: A URL pointing to more details about that specific error and how to solve it.
• A Correlation ID: A unique ID for the request that can be used to track it through logs, making debugging much easier for both the client and server teams.

This kind of consistency builds trust and transforms a moment of failure into a productive debugging session for the developers using your service.

Optimizing Performance with Caching

Beyond just managing data retrieval, server-side caching is your secret weapon for slashing latency and reducing database load. Using standard HTTP headers like Cache-Control and ETag, you can tell clients and proxies how long a response is "fresh." Cache-Control specifies the duration a response can be cached, while an ETag is like a version number for a resource, allowing clients to make conditional requests and avoid re-downloading unchanged data. This simple step stops them from repeatedly asking for the same unchanged data, making your API feel incredibly snappy.

The move toward API-first development has put these production concerns front and center. It’s a huge shift—a recent report shows 82% of organizations expect to be API-first by 2025. With developers spending over 10 hours per week on API-related work, solid design and documentation are more critical than ever. You can dig into more of these trends in the 2025 State of API Report on postman.com.

Finally, remember that your API is only as good as its documentation. Tools built around the OpenAPI Specification (what we used to call Swagger) let you define your API in a machine-readable format. This single source of truth can then automatically generate interactive docs, client SDKs, and even a baseline for your test suites. Excellent documentation is a product feature in its own right. If you're ready to get serious about quality, our guide on effective RESTful API testing is a great place to start.

Frequently Asked Questions About RESTful API Design

Even after you've got the core principles down, certain questions always seem to pop up when you're in the trenches, actually designing an API. Let's tackle a few of the most common sticking points to clear up any confusion and help you build better, more intuitive services.

What's the Real Difference Between REST and RESTful?

This is a classic, and it trips up a lot of developers. The simplest way to think about it is that REST (Representational State Transfer) is the architectural style—it's the set of rules and constraints, like statelessness and a uniform interface. It's the philosophy. It is the formal specification and the set of ideas defined by Roy Fielding.

The term "RESTful" is just an adjective we use to describe an API that actually follows those rules. So, REST is the blueprint, and a RESTful API is the house you build from that blueprint. In practice, many APIs are "REST-like" but may not adhere to every single constraint (especially HATEOAS). However, an API that respects the core ideas of resources, URIs, and HTTP methods can be considered RESTful. One is the theory, the other is the practical application.

When Should I Use PATCH Instead of PUT?

This one comes down to how much of the resource you're updating. While both methods change an existing resource, their intentions are completely different, and choosing the right one matters for clarity and efficiency.

Use PUT when you need to completely replace a resource. When you send a PUT request, you're telling the server, "Here is the new version of this entire object." If you leave out any fields in your request, the server will likely nullify them or reset them to their default values. It's a full-on replacement. Because it's idempotent, it's a safe way to ensure a resource is in a specific state.

On the other hand, use PATCH for partial updates. It's the perfect tool when you only want to change a few specific fields. For instance, if you just need to update a user's email address, a PATCH request is far more efficient because you only send the email field, not the entire user profile. This saves bandwidth and can prevent accidental data loss if the client has a stale representation of the resource.

Why Is a Uniform Interface Such a Big Deal?

Of all the REST principles, the Uniform Interface is arguably the most critical. Why? Because it’s the key that decouples the client from the server. It creates a standardized "contract" that dictates how they talk to each other, no matter what technology is running on either side. This contract is built on the stable foundations of URIs, HTTP methods, standard media types (like application/json), and hypermedia links.

This principle is what allows systems to scale and last for years. It ensures communication is predictable, which means your mobile app and your server can evolve independently. As long as both sides keep honoring the contract, you can completely refactor your backend services without breaking the frontend.

This separation of concerns simplifies the entire system, making your API more predictable for other developers and far more resilient to change over the long haul. It is the defining feature that makes RESTful APIs so adaptable and long-lasting compared to more rigid, RPC-style architectures.

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