API Design: RESTful Best Practices and Common Pitfalls

• •Use nouns for resources (/users, /orders) and HTTP methods for actions (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). Avoid verbs in URLs (/getUsers, /createOrder).
• •Return appropriate status codes: 200 (OK), 201 (Created), 204 (No Content), 400 (Bad Request), 401 (Unauthorized), 404 (Not Found), 409 (Conflict), 422 (Unprocessable), 429 (Rate Limited), 500 (Server Error).
• •Pagination: always paginate list endpoints. Use cursor-based pagination for large datasets. Include next/previous cursors and total count in the response.
• •Error responses should include a machine-readable error code, human-readable message, and optional details array. Never expose stack traces in production.
• •Version APIs via header (Accept: application/vnd.api+json;version=2) or URL prefix (/v2/users). Header versioning avoids polluting URL structure.

Well-designed APIs reduce integration time for clients, make debugging faster, and prevent breaking changes from impacting consumers.