Let's take a quick look at the HTTP verbs that allow us to communicate back and forth with APIs:
HTTP Verb | CRUD Equivalent |
POST | Create |
GET | Read |
PUT | Update/Replace |
PATCH | Update/Modify |
DELETE |
Delete |
While the actual verbs used in an API depend on the API's design, these are the standard REST terms that many APIs today use. REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer and is a standard description of how to format APIs. Now, REST or RESTful APIs don't always have to communicate with JSON—REST is agnostic to format. Let's take a look at API calls in practice.