REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style designed to guide the development of distributed systems, especially web-based applications and APIs. It defines a set of constraints and principles that promote scalability, simplicity, reliability, and performance in communication between client and server over the internet

. Key aspects of REST include:

• Resource-Oriented Architecture : REST treats data and functionality as resources, each identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Resources can be documents, objects, or any entities that the system manages

• Statelessness : Each client request to the server must contain all the information needed to understand and process it independently, without relying on stored context on the server. This makes RESTful systems scalable and reliable

• Uniform Interface : REST enforces a consistent way to interact with resources, typically through standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE. The server responds with representations of resources, often in formats like HTML, JSON, or XML

• Separation of Client and Server : The client and server operate independently; changes on one side do not require changes on the other, allowing modular development and deployment

• Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS) : Clients discover actions and navigate the system dynamically by following hyperlinks provided in resource representations

REST is not a protocol but an architectural style, and web services that follow REST principles are called RESTful APIs. These APIs are widely used for building scalable and interoperable web services that communicate over HTTP

. In summary, REST is a design approach for web services that emphasizes stateless communication, resource identification, and a uniform interface to enable efficient and scalable interactions between clients and servers on the web.