Flashcards on Data Exchange and Web APIs
Data Exchange & Web APIs: A Student's Guide to Digital Communication
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Web API
53 cards
Card 1
Question: What is HTTP, and which layer of the OSI model does it operate on?
Answer: HTTP is the HyperText Transfer Protocol, used for communication on the World Wide Web, and it operates on the Application (7th) layer of the OSI model
Card 2
Question: What is the fundamental principle of client-server communication using HTTP?
Answer: A client requests a resource, the server generates it, and sends it back. This communication is request-response based and stateless.
Card 3
Question: What does it mean for HTTP to be stateless?
Answer: The server does not retain any state information between two client requests.
Card 4
Question: Which transport protocols are used for HTTP connections?
Answer: HTTP uses TCP or QUIC (for HTTP/3), and connections can be persistent.
Card 5
Question: Why is TLS/HTTPS necessary instead of plain HTTP?
Answer: Because HTTP transmits everything in plaintext, making it vulnerable to sniffing. TLS (HTTPS) provides the solution for security.
Card 6
Question: What are the main advantages of HTTP/2 over HTTP/1.1?
Answer: HTTP/2 is binary, reduces latency, improves loading speed, and is high-level compatible with HTTP/1.1.
Card 7
Question: How does HTTP/3 differ from previous versions?
Answer: HTTP/3 runs on QUIC instead of TCP, offering more efficient multiplexing, faster connection establishment, and different header compression and encodi
Card 8
Question: Which HTTP methods are used to retrieve data and which to send data? Provide examples.
Answer: GET is used to retrieve data (e.g., from a URL), while POST is used to send data to the server (e.g., form submissions).
Card 9
Question: What methods are used to modify or delete resources on the server?
Answer: DELETE removes a resource, PUT creates or replaces a representation of a resource, and PATCH applies partial modifications.
Card 10
Question: What are the HEAD and OPTIONS methods used for?
Answer: HEAD requests only the headers, similar to a GET request. OPTIONS describes the communication options available for the target resource.