Explain HTTP methods and your usage

Q: Explain HTTP methods and your usage

This question evaluates understanding of HTTP methods along with related concepts of idempotency and safety, and how those properties influence RESTful API design, reliability, caching, retries, and client behavior.

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Question

HTTP Methods, Idempotency, Safety, and Practical Use

Context

You design and consume RESTful APIs for high-throughput services. Explain the core HTTP request methods and how their properties influence API design, reliability, and client behavior.

Tasks

List the main HTTP request methods and briefly describe each: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS (and optionally CONNECT, TRACE).
Define and contrast idempotency and safety. Explain why these properties matter for retries, caching, and consistency.
For each method, state whether it is safe and/or idempotent, give typical use cases, and call out common pitfalls.
Which methods do you use most in typical backend development and why? Provide rationale tied to read/write patterns, CORS, health checks, and reliability.

Explain HTTP methods and your usage

HTTP Methods, Idempotency, Safety, and Practical Use

Context

Tasks

Solution

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Explain HTTP methods and your usage

Overview

HTTP Methods, Idempotency, Safety, and Practical Use

Context

Tasks

Solution

Comments (0)