RESTful API design and development
API (Application Programming Interface) development involves creating interfaces that allow different software systems to communicate. REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for designing networked applications. RESTful APIs use HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources identified by URLs. Key principles include: statelessness (each request contains all necessary information), resource-based URLs, standard HTTP methods, and JSON response format. Good API design involves: consistent naming conventions, proper HTTP status codes, versioning, authentication/authorization, rate limiting, pagination, filtering, sorting, and comprehensive documentation. Python web frameworks like Flask and FastAPI provide tools to build RESTful APIs efficiently. Understanding API development is essential for creating web services, microservices architectures, and applications that need to integrate with other systems or provide data to frontend clients.