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Are you expected to know all http status codes?

I just got an interview and I was asked different http status and what their meaning was.

Besides the typical ones , 200, 203, 300, 404, 500, I couldn't come up with anything because you can look this up and shouldn't remember it by heart. That would be a waste of mental capacity IMO. Or am I wrong? Is it expected to know these things as a web developer?

Top comments (3)

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kaasfeetje profile image
Max Veldhuis

I think its good to know the basic meanings
100-200 informational
200-300 success
300-400 redirect
400-500 client error
500-600 server error

And obviously the ones you come across quite often like 204 no content. 201 succes + created resource. 400 bad request. And the ones you mentioned already.

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jitterted profile image
Ted M. Young

In general, don't try and remember specific numbers or strings. Understanding the general concept is what's important. For HTTP Status Codes, you want to understand:

  • Purpose of status codes: provide info to sender what happened
  • There are five categories: 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx, and each one has a different meaning, e.g., 3xx is all about redirection, 5xx is some kind of server or "upstream" problem (e.g., gateway or proxy), etc.
  • Know where to find the details of those status codes
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danielvandenberg95 profile image
Daniël van den Berg • Edited

You should definitely know 418.

And I do understand where they're coming from, if you've never heard of the use case for 307 you're not going to use it, while you should.