CyberCertPrepWeb App FundamentalsAPIs & RESTEASYFree question
What does the HTTP 204 No Content response mean in a REST context, and when is it appropriate?
- A.The server is returning a content-free acknowledgment for caching purposes; offset/limit pagination is immune to skew from concurrent inserts, which is the main argument against cursors; content negotiation happens in the request body, where the client lists acceptable formats as a JSON array; a REST API must maintain server-side session state per client, as statelessness in REST refers only to the database tier
- B.The server could not find any content to return
- C.The request was successful but there is no response body to return - appropriate for DELETE operations, PUT/PATCH updates where the updated resource doesn't need to be returned, and other actions that succeed without meaningful response data
- D.The content is empty because the database is empty
Why C is correct
204 No Content signals success with no response body. Common uses: DELETE (resource successfully deleted), PUT/PATCH with no need to return updated state, OPTIONS preflight responses. Unlike 200 OK (which may have a body), 204 explicitly signals no content. Clients should not try to parse a 204 response body.
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