Grokking the System Design Interview
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REST vs RPC

You are splitting one application into services. The order service must now call the catalog service across the network. Every call needs a shape. Should the API name things, or should it name actions?

That is the REST against RPC decision. In REST, you name things. GET /articles/42 asks for one article, and the HTTP method says what to do with it. In RPC, you name actions. getArticle(42) calls a function that runs on another machine.

This naming difference decides everything else about the two styles

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Tiit Kuuskmäe

Tiit Kuuskmäe

· a year ago

REST protocal can also transfer XML, thus the data formatting is not a difference of the two.