REST means REpresentational State Transfer; it is an architecture that generally runs over HTTP. The REST style emphasizes the interactions between clients and services, which are enhanced by having a limited number of operations. REST is an alternative to SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and instead of using XML for request REST uses simple URL in some cases. Unlike SOAP, RESTFUL applications uses HTTP build in headers to carry meta-information.
There are various code that REST use to determine whether user has access to API or not like code 200 or 201 indicates successful interaction with response body while 400 indicates a bad request or the request URI does not match the APIs in the system. All API request parameters and method parameters can be sent via either POST or GET variables.
Rest API supports both XML and JSON format. It is usually preferred for Mobile and web apps as it makes app work faster and smoother There is one more thing one needs to learn
