Answer
Disadvantages of REST API
1. Doesn''t Enforce Security Practices
REST has no built-in security standard. Security must be implemented separately:
- ✓No native encryption (must use HTTPS)
- ✓No built-in authentication (must add OAuth, JWT, API keys manually)
- ✓No message-level security (unlike SOAP which has WS-Security)
2. HTTP Method Limits You to Synchronous Requests
- ✓REST is synchronous by nature — client waits for the server response
- ✓Not ideal for long-running operations
- ✓For async needs, you must implement polling, webhooks, or use WebSockets separately
3. Statelessness Can Be a Challenge
- ✓Due to statelessness, you might be unable to maintain state (e.g., in sessions)
- ✓Each request must carry full authentication info
- ✓More data transmitted per request (no server-side session caching)
4. Over-fetching and Under-fetching
- ✓Over-fetching: REST returns all fields even when only a few are needed
- ✓Under-fetching: May require multiple API calls to get related data (GraphQL solves this)
5. Lack of Strict Standardization
- ✓Unlike SOAP (which has strict WSDL contracts), REST has no enforced contract
- ✓Different teams may implement REST differently, leading to inconsistency
6. File Transfer Limitations
- ✓REST is not ideal for streaming large files or binary data
- ✓Better alternatives exist for high-volume file transfers