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Answer» For decades, REST (Representational State Transfer) has been a POPULAR architectural way to design APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), but the popularity of GraphQL over the past few years threatens to topple REST. In general, REST and GraphQL both aim to transfer data over internet protocols including HTTP. How they do so differs greatly, however. | GraphQL | REST |
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| It is a Query Language for APIs that enables declarative data fetching to provide clients control over which data to retrieve from the API. | It is an API design architectural style that defines a set of constraints to create web services. | | GraphQL is known for its high predictability. With this, you can send requests to your API and get the exact results you are looking for without having to include ANYTHING you don't need. GraphQL queries give predictable results, which improves their usability significantly. | On the other hand, REST's behaviour depends on the HTTP and URI methods used. API consumers can therefore be unsure of what to expect when calling an endpoint. | | API security can be ensured by GraphQL, though the security features aren't as mature as those of REST. GraphQL, for INSTANCE, ASSISTS in integrating data validation, but users are left to figure out how to apply authentication and authorization measures. | API security can be enforced in several ways using REST. You can implement multiple methods of API authentication, such as HTTP authentication, to ensure REST API security. | | With GraphQL, you can retrieve everything you need through a single API request. You can specify the structure of the information you need, and the server will return the same structure to you, so there is no need to over-and under-fetch. | Consequently, since REST APIs have rigid data structures that return the specified data whenever they are accessed, you may end up with unwanted data or have to make multiple requests before getting the right data. As a result, the server's response time (to return information) can be prolonged due to these shortcomings. | | It only supports JSON format. | XML, YAML, JSON, HTML, and other formats are supported, as well. | | The main use cases of GraphQL are mobile APPLICATIONS and multiple microservices. | Rest is mainly used for simple applications and resource-driven applications. |
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