The Language of Web Conversations 🌐

HTTP status codes are the internet’s secret handshake. Here’s your decoder ring:

1xx: Informational

  • 100 Continue: “Keep sending, I’m listening!”

2xx: Success

  • 200 OK: “Everything worked perfectly!”
  • 201 Created: “New resource born successfully”
  • 204 No Content: “Request succeeded, nothing to show”

3xx: Redirection

  • 301 Moved Permanently: “We’ve moved houses!”
  • 304 Not Modified: “Cache still fresh ☕”

4xx: Client Errors

  • 400 Bad Request: “Check your syntax, friend”
  • 401 Unauthorized: “Who goes there?”
  • 404 Not Found: “Digital ghost town”
  • 418 I’m a teapot: (RFC 2324 Easter egg đŸ«–)

5xx: Server Errors

  • 500 Internal Error: “Our bad!”
  • 503 Service Unavailable: “Try again later”

Pro Tip: Always return appropriate status codes with meaningful error messages:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 404,
    "message": "User profile not found",
    "documentation": "/api/docs/errors#404"
  }
}