E-Commerce Development E-Commerce Development APIs and Integrations 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which API architectural style is most commonly used for modern e-commerce integrations due to its stateless nature and use of HTTP methods?
- SOAP
- REST (Correct answer)
- GraphQL
- XML-RPC
Correct answer: REST
REST (Representational State Transfer) is the most widely adopted API style for e-commerce integrations because it uses standard HTTP methods, is stateless, and works well with JSON.
Question 2: What is the primary purpose of a webhook in an e-commerce system?
- To render product pages on the server
- To push real-time event notifications to an external URL (Correct answer)
- To cache API responses for faster load times
- To encrypt payment data during transit
Correct answer: To push real-time event notifications to an external URL
Webhooks allow an e-commerce platform to send real-time HTTP POST notifications to an external URL whenever a specific event (e.g., new order, shipment update) occurs.
Question 3: Which HTTP status code should a third-party API return to indicate that a request was successful and a new resource was created?
- 200 OK
- 204 No Content
- 201 Created (Correct answer)
- 301 Moved Permanently
Correct answer: 201 Created
HTTP 201 Created is the correct status code to return when a POST request successfully creates a new resource such as a new order or customer record.
Question 4: What authentication mechanism do most e-commerce APIs (e.g., Shopify, Stripe) use to verify API consumers?
- Basic Auth with username/password
- API keys or OAuth 2.0 tokens (Correct answer)
- SAML assertions
- Session cookies only
Correct answer: API keys or OAuth 2.0 tokens
Modern e-commerce APIs primarily use API keys for simple access or OAuth 2.0 tokens for delegated authorization, ensuring secure and revocable access.
Question 5: When integrating a third-party shipping carrier API, which data format is most commonly exchanged in modern e-commerce platforms?
- CSV
- XML only
- JSON (Correct answer)
- YAML
Correct answer: JSON
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is the dominant data format for API communication in modern e-commerce due to its lightweight structure and native JavaScript compatibility.
Question 6: What is API rate limiting in an e-commerce context?
- Limiting the number of products returned per page
- Restricting the number of API requests a client can make in a given time window (Correct answer)
- Blocking access to the API based on geographic location
- Capping the total number of registered API keys
Correct answer: Restricting the number of API requests a client can make in a given time window
Rate limiting controls how many API requests a client can make within a specific time window (e.g., 100 requests per minute) to protect the server from overload and abuse.
E-Commerce Development E-Commerce Development APIs and Integrations 1
Which API architectural style is most commonly used for modern e-commerce integrations due to its stateless nature and use of HTTP methods?