RESTful APIs (Representational State Transfer APIs) are a type of web service that allow different systems to communicate with each other over the internet. RESTful APIs follow the principles of REST, a set of guidelines that make web services simple to scale and use.
RESTful APIs use simple, standard HTTP methods to perform actions. Examples include:
- GET: retrieves data
- POST: creates new data
- PUT: updates existing data
- DELETE: removes data
In RESTful APIs, data and functions are treated as resources that can be manipulated and used to achieve a user’s end goals. Each request sent to a RESTful API is independent from all other requests. While this creates a system with less memory, it also makes the system simpler, more scalable, and more flexible.