<ul data-eligibleForWebStory="true">REST APIs are essential for seamless communication between clients and servers, favored for web and mobile applications.Good API design is crucial for performance and usability, avoiding confusion, inefficiency, and maintenance issues.Following REST API best practices leads to intuitive, secure, and scalable web services.Key principles include adhering to HTTP methods, focusing on resource nouns in URLs, using correct status codes, and providing clear error messages.Input validation, versioning, pagination, filtering, and sorting are essential aspects of REST API development.HATEOAS guides clients with links in responses, enhancing API self-documentation.Security measures like HTTPS encryption, authentication, and authorization are vital for API protection.Adhering to these best practices ensures creation of scalable, maintainable, and user-friendly APIs.Java Spring Boot examples provided in the article offer practical insights for implementing REST API design principles.