what is HTTP ?

mental model is a good, beginner-friendly way to understand HTTP requests without memorizing every header.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application-layer protocol used for communication between a client (browser, mobile app, API client) and a server

Mental model:

Method url/path httpversion
Headers
Body

Method url/path httpversion
Headers
Body

Example:

PUT /users HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "John"
}

PUT /users HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "John"
}

what is method?

Each method tell the server what action to be performed at particular resource. Lets' say GET method, tells the get the particular data from the resource.

what is url/path?

URL stand for uniform resource locator in that host

what are Headers?

Headers are key-value pair carry additional information about the request and response. Tells the server how to handle the client and server message.

Example: Content-Type: application/json =>tells server what type of it is sending

Status Code

1xx Informational

2xx Success

3xx Redirect

4xx Client Error

5xx Server Error