Core concepts

This guide introduces the core concepts of the Fake Store API and explains how it handles requests and responses.

Resources

The Fake Store API is structured around a RESTful design, with data organized into resources that represent different object types.

Resources in the Fake Store API include:

• Products: List of items available in the store for purchase.

• Carts: Collections of products marked for purchase and associated with a specific user.

• Users: Profiles of registered e-commerce customers.

• Auth: Endpoint used for validating user login credentials.

Each resource is accessed through standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.

HTTP Methods

All interactions with Fake Store API resources are carried out using standard HTTP methods.

Method	Description
GET	Retrieves resource data
POST	Adds/creates a new resource
PUT	Updates a specific existing resource data
DELETE	Removes a specific resource

Authentication

While the Fake Store API does not require authentication for basic data retrieval, it provides an authentication endpoint (/auth/login) for validating user credentials.

The authentication request to the API is securely validated, as it checks and only returns a JSON Web Token (JWT) when request credentials are accurate and/or properly formatted.

curl -X POST https://fakestoreapi.com/auth/login \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"username":"mor_2314","password":"83r5^_"}'

JSON response:

{"token":"eyJhbGciOiJIU..."}

Request Format

Every request to the Fake Store API must specify a valid endpoint and HTTP method.

For requests that create a new resource or update an existing one, the API typically accepts a JSON-formatted request body. Such requests should include a valid header formatted as Content-Type: application/json.

curl -X POST https://fakestoreapi.com/products \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"title":"Sample Product","price":100}'

In the request above:

• "Content-Type: application/json" represents the request Header.

• '{"title":"Sample Product","price":100}' represents the JSON-formatted request body.

Response Format

The API generally returns JSON-formatted responses for successful API requests. Some error responses may return plain text or HTML-formatted content instead of JSON.

{
    "id": "integer",
    "title": "string",
    "price": "integer"
}

The above code represents a successful JSON-formatted API response returned on a successful API call.

username and password are not provided in JSON-format

The above represents a plain text response returned by the API upon a failed API call.

Status codes

The API returns a status code depending on whether the request succeeds or fails.

Status code	Description
200 OK	Request completed successfully
201 Created	Resource created successfully
400 Bad Request	Request contains invalid JSON or an invalid ID value
401 Unauthorized	Invalid authentication credentials