A RESTful API is an architectural style for designing networked applications and web services that adhere to the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST). RESTful APIs use standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and status codes to interact with resources (e.g. data objects, services) identified by URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) and exchange representations of resource states (e.g. JSON, XML) between clients and servers. RESTful APIs emphasize stateless communication, uniform interfaces, resource-based interactions, and scalability, making them well-suited for building distributed systems, microservices, and web APIs that are efficient, scalable, and interoperable.
