Beginner LevelREST APIs & Web Services
How does Content-Encoding (gzip, br) compress HTTP API responses?
❓ Interview Prompt: Explain HTTP payload compression, `Accept-Encoding: gzip, br` header, `Content-Encoding` response header, and CPU vs bandwidth trade-offs.
HTTP Compression shrinks response payload byte size before transmitting over the network:
Execution Flow:
1
Client sends header: 'Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br'.
2
Server compresses JSON response using Brotli ('br') or Gzip ('gzip').
3
Server returns header: 'Content-Encoding: br'.
4
Client browser/HTTP library automatically decompresses payload before handing data to application code, yielding 70%-90% bandwidth savings!
Code Implementation Example
typescript
import compression from 'compression';
import express from 'express';
const app = express();
// Enable automatic Gzip/Brotli HTTP response compression middleware!
app.use(compression());💡Enabling response compression middleware in an Express REST API.
🎯 Interview Key Takeaway
HTTP response compression (gzip/br) reduces payload transfer byte size by up to 90% with minimal CPU overhead.
#Compression#Brotli#Gzip#Beginner
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