What is REST?

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for building networked applications. It relies on a stateless, client-server, cacheable communications protocol -- typically HTTP. REST defines a set of constraints, such as using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to manipulate resources identified by URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers). It's commonly used for building web APIs due to its simplicity, scalability, and interoperability.