Chapter quiz
Test yourself
You've learned what's behind an API, how REST conventions work, and why relationships between tables shape what's easy and what's hard to build. Let's see what stuck.
Databases
In the database-as-spreadsheet analogy, what is a table?
Why does every row in a database table have an ID?
Which HTTP method is the equivalent of adding a new row to a spreadsheet?
REST conventions
What does it mean when someone says an API is "RESTful"?
What is the correct RESTful way to delete product #42?
Why do REST URLs use plural nouns like /products instead of /product?
Relationships
In an Orders table, what does the user_id column do?
What does the nested route GET /users/1/posts mean?
You want to let users favorite products. A user can favorite many products, and a product can be favorited by many users. What does this require?
Your engineer says "that field doesn't exist on the user." What do they mean?
You're done with Chapter 3. You now understand what sits behind an API: tables, rows, relationships. When your engineering team talks about data models, CRUD operations, or "needing a new table," you know exactly what they mean. Next up: authentication, and why some API calls get rejected.