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beginner Phase · REST API Development

RESTful URLs

Design clean, consistent, and intuitive API URLs.

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URL Patterns

URL Structure

https://api.example.com/v1/products/123?include=reviews&fields=id,name,price
|         |            |  |    |    |         |                   |
scheme    host         v  resource id  query     included          fields
                      version

Common URL Patterns

Method URL Description
GET /products List all products
GET /products/123 Get specific product
POST /products Create new product
PUT /products/123 Replace product
PATCH /products/123 Partial update
DELETE /products/123 Delete product
GET /products/123/reviews Get reviews for product
POST /products/123/reviews Add review to product

Query Parameters

# Pagination
GET /products?page=2&limit=20

# Filtering
GET /products?category=electronics&minPrice=100&maxPrice=500

# Sorting
GET /products?sort=price:asc,name:desc

# Search
GET /products/search?q=wireless+mouse

# Field selection
GET /products?fields=id,name,price

# Include related
GET /products/123?include=reviews,category

URL Best Practices

Do Don't
/users/123 /getUser/123
/order-items /orderItems
/products?sort=price:asc /products?sortBy=price&order=asc
Use query params for filtering Use path for every filter

REST Best Practices

Principles

  • Stateless communication
  • Client-server separation
  • Cacheable responses
  • Uniform interface

HTTP Methods

  • GET: Read (idempotent, safe)
  • POST: Create
  • PUT: Full update (idempotent)
  • PATCH: Partial update
  • DELETE: Remove (idempotent)

Status Codes

  • 2xx: Success
  • 3xx: Redirection
  • 4xx: Client error
  • 5xx: Server error

Key Points

  • Understanding RESTful URL Design is essential for production systems
  • Always consider scalability and maintainability
  • Test thoroughly before deploying to production
  • Monitor performance and set up alerting

Common Patterns

  1. Validation: Always validate input at the boundary
  2. Error Handling: Use structured error responses
  3. Logging: Log key events for debugging
  4. Testing: Unit, integration, and load tests
  5. Documentation: Keep docs updated with code changes

Practice Problems

0 / 3 solved
Implement RESTful URL Design

Design and implement a solution for RESTful URL Design in a backend system. Consider scalability, error handling, and production readiness.

Solution 
// RESTful URL Design implementation
// Key aspects: validation, error handling, logging, testing

public class RESTfulURLDesign {
    // Production-ready implementation
}
RESTful URL Design Edge Cases

Identify and handle edge cases for RESTful URL Design. What happens under high load, with invalid input, or during failures?

Solution 
// Edge case handling:
// 1. Null/empty input -> validation
// 2. High load -> rate limiting, queuing
// 3. Failures -> retries, circuit breaker
// 4. Concurrent access -> locks, idempotency
RESTful URL Design Testing Strategy

Write a testing strategy for RESTful URL Design. Include unit tests, integration tests, and performance tests.

Solution 
// Test plan:
// - Unit: 80% coverage target
// - Integration: API contracts
// - Performance: latency, throughput
// - Chaos: failure injection

Quiz

1. How should filtering be done in REST?

Question 1 options

2. What is the correct URL for getting reviews of product 123?

Question 2 options

3. What is a common mistake when implementing RESTful URL Design?

Question 3 options

Flashcards

Question

How to handle filtering in REST?

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Answer

Query parameters: /products?category=electronics&minPrice=100

Question

Should URLs use camelCase or hyphens?

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Answer

Hyphens: /order-items not /orderItems

Question

RESTful URL Design best practices

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Answer

Follow SOLID principles, write clean code, test thoroughly, document decisions, and monitor in production.

Revision Notes

Key Takeaways

  • 1. Use query parameters for filtering, sorting, pagination
  • 2. Use hyphens for multi-word URLs, plural nouns
  • 3. Keep URLs clean and self-descriptive
  • 4. Version APIs in the URL path (/v1/products)

Interview Tips

  • • Design URLs for a given scenario
  • • Know when to use query params vs path segments

Cheat Sheet

URL Design

  • Plural nouns: /products, /users
  • Hyphens: /order-items (not camelCase)
  • Filtering: Query params ?category=electronics
  • Pagination: ?page=2&limit=20
  • Versioning: /v1/products