What does it mean to perform an operation without saving state on the server side?

Performing an operation without saving state on the server side means that the server does not store information about previous client requests between calls. This approach is called stateless.

Example: The HTTP protocol is stateless; the server processes each request independently, without relying on data from previous requests.

Advantages:

• Scalability — easier to distribute load among servers.
• Simplified architecture.

Disadvantage — the client or external systems need to independently transmit all necessary information for request processing.