REST API Design Skill

Purpose

Design RESTful APIs following industry best practices.

HTTP Methods

Status Codes

Success (2xx)

200 OK           → GET, PUT, PATCH success
201 Created      → POST success (include Location header)
202 Accepted     → Async operation started
204 No Content   → DELETE success

Client Errors (4xx)

400 Bad Request  → Validation failed
401 Unauthorized → Authentication required
403 Forbidden    → Permission denied
404 Not Found    → Resource doesn't exist
409 Conflict     → State conflict (duplicate, etc.)
422 Unprocessable → Semantic errors
429 Too Many     → Rate limit exceeded

Server Errors (5xx)

500 Internal     → Unexpected error
502 Bad Gateway  → Upstream failed
503 Unavailable  → Temporarily down
504 Timeout      → Upstream timeout

Resource Design

# Collection operations
GET /api/v1/users              → List (paginated)
POST /api/v1/users             → Create

# Instance operations
GET /api/v1/users/{id}         → Read
PUT /api/v1/users/{id}         → Replace
PATCH /api/v1/users/{id}       → Update
DELETE /api/v1/users/{id}      → Delete

# Nested resources (max 2 levels)
GET /api/v1/users/{id}/orders  → User's orders
POST /api/v1/users/{id}/orders → Create user's order

# Sub-resource instance
GET /api/v1/users/{id}/orders/{orderId}

# Actions (when CRUD doesn't fit)
POST /api/v1/orders/{id}/cancel
POST /api/v1/users/{id}/verify
POST /api/v1/reports/{id}/generate

Response Envelope

{
  "data": {
    "id": "123",
    "type": "user",
    "attributes": {
      "name": "John Doe",
      "email": "[email protected]"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "requestId": "abc-123",
    "timestamp": "2024-12-30T10:00:00Z",
    "version": "1.0.0"
  }
}

Error Response (RFC 7807)

{
  "type": "https://api.example.com/errors/validation",
  "title": "Validation Failed",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "One or more fields have validation errors",
  "instance": "/api/v1/users",
  "errors": [
    { "field": "email", "message": "Invalid email format" },
    { "field": "password", "message": "Minimum 12 characters" }
  ]
}

Pagination

Offset-based (Simple)

GET /api/v1/users?page=2&limit=20

Response:
{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 2,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 150,
    "totalPages": 8,
    "hasNext": true,
    "hasPrev": true
  }
}

Cursor-based (Recommended)

GET /api/v1/users?cursor=eyJpZCI6MTAwfQ&limit=20

Response:
{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "nextCursor": "eyJpZCI6MTIwfQ",
    "prevCursor": "eyJpZCI6ODB9",
    "hasNext": true,
    "hasPrev": true
  }
}

Filtering & Sorting

# Filtering
GET /api/v1/users?status=active&role=admin
GET /api/v1/users?created_at[gte]=2024-01-01
GET /api/v1/users?search=john

# Sorting
GET /api/v1/users?sort=created_at:desc
GET /api/v1/users?sort=-created_at,name  # - prefix for desc

# Field selection
GET /api/v1/users?fields=id,name,email

# Embedding related resources
GET /api/v1/users?include=orders,profile

Caching Headers

# Response headers
Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600
ETag: "abc123"
Last-Modified: Wed, 21 Oct 2024 07:28:00 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding, Authorization

# Conditional requests
If-None-Match: "abc123"
If-Modified-Since: Wed, 21 Oct 2024 07:28:00 GMT

Unit Test Template

import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
import request from 'supertest';
import app from './app';

describe('REST API - Users', () => {
  describe('GET /api/v1/users', () => {
    it('should return paginated users', async () => {
      const res = await request(app)
        .get('/api/v1/users?page=1&limit=10')
        .expect(200);

      expect(res.body).toHaveProperty('data');
      expect(res.body).toHaveProperty('pagination');
      expect(res.body.pagination.page).toBe(1);
    });

    it('should filter by status', async () => {
      const res = await request(app)
        .get('/api/v1/users?status=active')
        .expect(200);

      res.body.data.forEach(user => {
        expect(user.status).toBe('active');
      });
    });
  });

  describe('POST /api/v1/users', () => {
    it('should create user and return 201', async () => {
      const res = await request(app)
        .post('/api/v1/users')
        .send({ email: '[email protected]', name: 'Test' })
        .expect(201);

      expect(res.headers.location).toMatch(/\/api\/v1\/users\/\w+/);
      expect(res.body.data.id).toBeDefined();
    });

    it('should return 400 for invalid data', async () => {
      const res = await request(app)
        .post('/api/v1/users')
        .send({ email: 'invalid' })
        .expect(400);

      expect(res.body.type).toContain('validation');
    });
  });

  describe('GET /api/v1/users/:id', () => {
    it('should return 404 for non-existent user', async () => {
      await request(app)
        .get('/api/v1/users/non-existent-id')
        .expect(404);
    });
  });
});

Troubleshooting

Quality Checklist

• Resource names are plural nouns
• HTTP methods match actions
• Status codes are correct
• Error responses follow RFC 7807
• Pagination implemented for lists
• Filtering and sorting supported
• Caching headers configured
• Rate limiting in place