1) Explain what is REST and RESTFUL?

REST represents REpresentational State Transfer; it is a relatively new aspect of writing web API. RESTFUL is referred for web services written by applying REST architectural concept are called RESTful services, it focuses on system resources and how state of resource should be transported over HTTP protocol to different clients written in different language. In RESTFUL web service HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT and DELETE can be used to perform CRUD operations. 👉 Free PDF Download: Rest API Interview Questions & Answers »

2) Explain the architectural style for creating web API?

The architectural style for creating web api are

HTTP for client server communication XML/JSON as formatting language Simple URI as the address for the services Stateless communication

3) Mention what tools are required to test your web API?

SOAPUI tool for SOAP WS and Firefox “poster” plugin for RESTFUL services.

4) Mention what are the HTTP methods supported by REST?

HTTP methods supported by REST are:

GET: It requests a resource at the request URL. It should not contain a request body as it will be discarded. Maybe it can be cached locally or on the server. POST: It submits information to the service for processing; it should typically return the modified or new resource PUT: At the request URL it update the resource DELETE: At the request URL it removes the resource OPTIONS: It indicates which techniques are supported HEAD: About the request URL it returns meta information

Let’s take a look from a perspective of just a single record. Let’s say there was an employee record with the employee number of 1. The following actions would have their respective meanings.

POST– This would not be applicable since we are fetching data of employee 1 which is already created. GET– This would be used to get the details of the employee with Employee no as 1 using the RESTful web service PUT– This would be used to update the details of the employee with Employee no as 1 using the RESTful web service DELETE – This is used to delete the details of the employee with Employee no as 1

5) Mention whether you can use GET request instead of PUT to create a resource?

No, you are not supposed to use PUT for GET. GET operations should only have view rights, while PUT resource is used for updating a data.

6) Mention what are resources in a REST architecture?

Resources are identified by logical URLs; it is the key element of a RESTful design. Unlike, SOAP web services in REST, you view the product data as a resource and this resource should contain all the required information.

7) Mention what is the difference between AJAX and REST?

8) Mention some key characteristics of REST?

Some key characteristics of REST includes

REST is stateless, therefore the SERVER has no state (or session data) With a well-applied REST API, the server could be restarted between two calls as every data is passed to the server Web service mostly uses POST method to make operations, whereas REST uses GET to access resources

9) Mention what are the different application integration styles?

The different integration styles include

Shared database Batch file transfer Invoking remote procedure (RPC) Swapping asynchronous messages over a message oriented middle-ware (MOM)

JAXB stands for java arch for XML binding.

11) Mention what is the difference between PUT and POST?

“PUT” puts a file or resource at a particular URI and exactly at that URI. If there is already a file or resource at that URI, PUT changes that file or resource. If there is no resource or file there, PUT makes one POST sends data to a particular URI and expects the resource at that URI to deal with the request. The web server at this point can decide what to do with the data in the context of specified resource PUT is idempotent meaning, invoking it any number of times will not have an impact on resources. However, POST is not idempotent, meaning if you invoke POST multiple times it keeps creating more resources

12) Mention which markup language can be used in restful web api?

JSON and XML are the two markup language that can be used in restful web api

13) Mention what is the difference between RPC or document style web services? How you determine to which one to choose?

In document style web services, we can transport an XML message as part of SOAP request which is not possible in RPC style web service. Document style web service is most appropriate in some application where XML message behaves as document and content of that document can alter and intention of web service does not rely on the content of XML message.

14) Mention what is JAX-WS and JAX-RS?

Both JAX-WS and JAX-RS are libraries (APIs) for doing communication in various ways in Java. JAX-WS is a library that can be used to do SOAP communication in JAVA, and JAX-RS lets you do the REST communication in JAVA.

15) List out the tools or API for developing or testing web api?

Testing tools for web services for REST APIs includes

Spring REST web service using MVC Jersey API CXF Axis Restlet,

16) Mention what is the difference between SOAP and REST?

These interview questions will also help in your viva(orals)