Tell me about HTTP status codes.

HTTP status codes are three-digit numbers indicating the state of a client's request after receiving it from the server. They are grouped by the first digit:

• 1xx (Informational): Request received, processing.
• 2xx (Successful): Request successfully received, understood, and accepted.
• 3xx (Redirection): Additional actions are needed to complete the request.
• 4xx (Client Error): The server cannot process the request due to a presumed client error.
• 5xx (Server Error): The server failed to process a correctly formed request.

Most common codes:

Code	Description	Group
100	Continue	Informational
200	OK	Successful
201	Created	Successful
204	No Content	Successful
301	Moved Permanently	Redirection
302	Found	Redirection
400	Bad Request	Client Error
401	Unauthorized	Client Error
403	Forbidden	Client Error
404	Not Found	Client Error
500	Internal Server Error	Server Error
503	Service Unavailable	Server Error

In testing, we verify the correctness of status codes in server responses to ensure that the backend correctly handles various request types (successful, client errors, server issues). This is critical for API logic validation.

Automating status code checks:

import requests

url = "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1"
response = requests.get(url)

# Check for status 200
assert response.status_code == 200, f"Expected status code 200, but got {response.status_code}"

url_not_found = "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/999"
response_not_found = requests.get(url_not_found)

# Check for status 404
assert response_not_found.status_code == 404, f"Expected status code 404, but got {response_not_found.status_code}"

import io.restassured.RestAssured;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import static io.restassured.RestAssured.given;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;

public class ApiStatusTest {

    @Test
    public void testSuccessfulRequest() {
        given()
                .when()
                .get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1")
                .then()
                .statusCode(200); // Check for status 200
    }

    @Test
    public void testNotFoundRequest() {
        given()
                .when()
                .get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/999")
                .then()
                .statusCode(404); // Check for status 404
    }
}