REST

REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is an architectural style for designing networked applications, serving as the foundation for most mobile app backend APIs. REST APIs use standard HTTP methods—GET, POST, PUT, DELETE—to perform operations on resources identified by URLs, making them intuitive and widely understood. Mobile apps communicate with REST endpoints to fetch data, submit forms, authenticate users, and perform other server operations. The stateless nature of REST aligns well with mobile development, where network connections may be intermittent and requests need to be independent and resumable.

REST’s simplicity and ubiquity make it the default choice for mobile app backends. The architecture leverages existing HTTP infrastructure including caching, authentication, and content negotiation, while JSON responses provide lightweight data transfer essential for mobile bandwidth efficiency. Standard HTTP status codes communicate success or failure, and well-designed REST APIs organize resources logically, making them predictable and easy to consume from iOS, Android, or cross-platform mobile frameworks.

For mobile developers, REST remains highly relevant despite newer alternatives like GraphQL. REST’s maturity means extensive tooling, libraries, and developer knowledge across all mobile platforms. While GraphQL offers advantages for complex data requirements, REST’s straightforward request-response model perfectly suits many mobile applications. Most mobile apps will consume REST APIs at some point, making REST API design and consumption a fundamental skill for mobile developers building apps that communicate with backend services.