Backend development

Stage 1 · Lesson 10 of 10

HTTP methods and status codes

Your language and how HTTP works

The says what the client wants to do. GET reads, POST creates something or triggers an action, PUT replaces a thing, PATCH changes part of it and DELETE removes it. Two properties matter for everything later.

Safe methods (GET, HEAD) change nothing on the server. Idempotent methods (GET, PUT, DELETE) have the same effect whether they run once or five times. That decides what a client may safely retry after a timeout.

are three-digit answers grouped by their first digit: 2xx means success, 3xx a , 4xx the client's fault and 5xx the server's fault. Learn 200, 201, 204, 301, , 400, 401, 403, 404, 409, 422, , 500 and 503 by heart.

Common trapreturning 200 with an error message in the body, which misleads every client and monitor.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 2 cheat sheet entries come with the full roadmap. Unlock

Resources for this stage

Start with· follow one of these

Practise

  • Your language track: small exercises with free mentor feedback on idiomatic code

Keep handy

  • Quick syntax lookups for your language when you forget how something is written

  • Read the HTTP overview, methods, headers and status code pages until they feel obvious

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