Question

A network engineer is integrating a monitoring application with a controller's REST API. During code review, a colleague asks why the application must include full authentication and context data in every single API request rather than establishing a persistent session on the server. Which characteristic of REST-based APIs explains this requirement?

Accepted Answer

REST APIs are stateless, so the server retains no client session information between requests

Answer

REST APIs require connection-oriented TCP sessions that must be re-authenticated per packet

Answer

REST APIs use only XML encoding, which cannot store session cookies

Answer

REST APIs mandate that all requests use the GET verb, which prevents session storage