API Design · Junior · Question 3 of 75

What does 'stateless' mean for a REST API?

1Responses never change
2The server has no database
✓Correct answer: Each request carries everything the server needs (e.g. auth token); the server doesn't rely on session state from previous requests

Explanation

Statelessness makes horizontal scaling easy: any instance can handle any request.

Further reading

Roy Fielding: REST architectural style (dissertation) ↗

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