Beginner LevelREST APIs & Web Services
What is the Statelessness constraint in REST architecture?
❓ Interview Prompt: Explain the REST statelessness architectural constraint, client-side session state, and JWT auth tokens.
Statelessness is a core architectural constraint of REST defined by Roy Fielding:
Core Requirement:
Every HTTP request from client to server MUST contain all the information necessary to understand and complete the request.
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The server does NOT store client session context in memory between requests.
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State is stored exclusively on the client (e.g. JWT tokens, local storage) or in a shared distributed cache (Redis).
Benefits:
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Horizontal Scalability: Any application server instance can handle any incoming client request.
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Reliability: Server restarts do not invalidate user sessions.
Code Implementation Example
http
GET /api/v1/profile HTTP/1.1
Host: api.example.com
Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...
Accept: application/json💡Stateless HTTP request carrying authorization token in headers.
🎯 Interview Key Takeaway
Statelessness requires each request to contain complete authentication and context, enabling horizontal server scaling.
#Statelessness#REST Architecture#JWT#Beginner
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