What are REST APIs and why do they matter?

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Authentication in REST APIs acts as the crucial gateway, ensuring that solely authorized users or applications gain access to the API's resources.    Some popular authentication methods for REST APIs include:    1. Basic Authentication:  Involves sending a username and password with each request, but can be less secure without encryption.    When to use:  Suitable for simple applications where security and encryption aren’t the primary concern or when used over secured connections.    2. Token Authentication:  Uses generated tokens, like JSON Web Tokens (JWT), exchanged between client and server, offering enhanced security without sending login credentials with each request.    When to use:  Ideal for more secure and scalable systems, especially when avoiding sending login credentials with each request is a priority.    3. OAuth Authentication:  Enables third-party limited access to user resources without revealing credentials by issuing access tokens after user authentication.    When to use:  Ideal for scenarios requiring controlled access to user resources by third-party applications or services.    4. API Key Authentication:  Assigns unique keys to users or applications, sent in headers or parameters; while simple, it might lack the security features of token-based or OAuth methods.    When to use:  Convenient for straightforward access control in less sensitive environments or for granting access to certain functionalities without the need for user-specific permissions.    Over to you:  Which REST API authentication method do you find most effective in ensuring both security and usability for your applications? – Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get a Free System Design PDF (158 pages): https://bit.ly/3KCnWXq #systemdesign #coding #interviewtips .

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Karan Gehlod

Research Development Software Engineer II @ Johnson Controls | AI Solutions Open Blue

11mo

Very helpful!

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Ehsan Hasin

Developer, Teacher & Leader

11mo

Thanks 🙏🏻

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Reza Zeraat

Artificial Intelligence Engineer | Python Javascript Typescript Java C++ | React Vue Angular React Native Next.js | Node.js Django Nestjs SpringBoot Fastapi Laravel | Pandas TensorFlow LangChain Ray Transformers

11mo

Oauth is the best approach

Siva Krishna Sidda

Java Developer at EPAM Systems with expertise in Spring Boot, Microservices, Kafka and Azure Cloud Services | Senior Software Engineer | Backend Engineer | DevOps Enthusiast | Azure Certified | Immediate Joiner

11mo

Very informative

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Jayaprakash J

Python Developer | Django| Django Rest Framework | JavaScript | React JS |

11mo

Token Authentication (specifically JWT) is often my preferred method for the following reasons: Security: Tokens can include additional security measures such as expiration times and claims, reducing the risk of misuse. Scalability: Stateless nature makes it suitable for distributed systems and microservices architectures. Usability: Once a token is issued, it simplifies subsequent requests as the client does not need to repeatedly authenticate.

Robert Graham

LLM Engineer | LangChain • RAG • Hugging Face | Scalable Gen‑AI & Conversational Agents | Python + FastAPI

11mo

Insightful!

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Rahul Shah

System Administrator at Azy technologies

11mo

Thanks for sharing

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Dipak Kr Das

IDENTITY and ACCESS | AWS | BACKEND | SERVERLESS | SPRINGBOOT | | ZTNA | SASE | JAVA |C|C++|GO |PYTHON |NODEJS | POSTGRESS | DYNAMODB | REDIS | MONGODB | WEBSOCKET | AUTH | KERNEL | DEVICE DRIVER | DOCKER | KUBERNETES

11mo

🚀 Great primer on authentication! However, I'd like to point out that 𝐎𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡 is actually focused on authorization, not authentication. The purpose of 𝐎𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡 is to grant access to resources post authentication, while 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐈𝐃 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 (𝐎𝐈𝐃𝐂) was specifically developed on top of 𝐎𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡 to handle authentication. 𝐎𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡 & 𝐎𝐈𝐃𝐂 Details: https://bit.ly/4elcBIv

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