Can you explain the principles of REST API and its main characteristics?

REST API (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for creating web services that uses standard HTTP methods and principles.

Main characteristics of REST API:

• Client-server architecture: the client and server are separated, allowing independent development.
• Stateless: each request from the client to the server must contain all the necessary information; the server does not store state between requests.
• Cacheability: responses can be cached to improve performance.
• Uniform interface: using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) for resource operations.
• Resource identification: each resource has a unique URI.

Example of a REST API request to get a list of users:

GET /users HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

The response contains data in JSON format with user information.

REST API is widely used due to its simplicity and compatibility with web technologies.