Best Practices for RESTful API Design

Designing a good RESTful API is crucial for creating scalable and maintainable services. Here are some best practices I've gathered over the years:

1. Use nouns for resources – URLs should represent entities, not actions (e.g., /users not /getUser).
2. Leverage HTTP methods correctly – GET for retrieval, POST for creation, PUT/PATCH for updates, DELETE for removal.
3. Statelessness – Each request should contain all the information needed to process it.
4. Version your API – Include a version in the URL, e.g., /v1/users.
5. Use proper status codes – 200 for success, 201 for created, 400 for bad request, 401/403 for auth issues, 404 for not found, 500 for server errors.
6. Provide pagination – Use query parameters like ?page=2&limit=50 for large collections.
7. Document with OpenAPI/Swagger – Keep your API contract up‑to‑date.

What other patterns have you found helpful? Feel free to share your experiences!