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Dev MaxxingBeginnerWeb Foundations60 sec
HTTP request
An HTTP request is a message a client sends to a server asking it to perform an action, such as retrieving or submitting data, following the HTTP protocol's structure.
Prerequisite: URL
What matters
Every interaction between a browser or app and a server, from loading a page to submitting a form, is carried out as one or more HTTP requests.
Example
Loading a webpage sends an HTTP request for the page's HTML, and the browser then sends further requests for its images and scripts.
Common misconception
An HTTP request is not limited to loading pages in a browser; background API calls made by an app are HTTP requests too.
Recall question
What does an HTTP request ask a server to do?
Keywords and related concepts
HTTP requestclient-serverprotocolhttp response