Core Interview Questions
You should be able to explain:
- What REST means.
- REST constraints.
- Statelessness.
- Resource vs representation.
- Safe vs idempotent methods.
- PUT vs PATCH.
- POST vs PUT.
- 401 vs 403.
- 400 vs 422.
- 409 conflicts.
- 201 vs 202 vs 204.
- Headers and content negotiation.
- Caching and ETags.
- CORS and CSRF.
- Authentication vs authorization.
- JWT limitations.
- OAuth 2.0 vs OpenID Connect.
- RBAC vs ABAC.
- Cursor vs offset pagination.
- HATEOAS.
- API versioning.
- Rate limiting.
- Webhooks and idempotency.
- Retries and backoff.
Key Takeaways
- Interview answers should explain trade-offs rather than memorize definitions.
- HTTP semantics are a recurring foundation for advanced API questions.
- Security questions often test authorization boundaries rather than authentication alone.