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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

Authentication

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ɔːˌθentɪˈkeɪʃən/nounCommon term

In software engineering, authentication means: The process of checking who a user or system is, for example with a password, a token or a fingerprint, before giving access.

In Turkish: kimlik doğrulama

How it is used

Often shortened to 'auth'. APIs require authentication, usually with API keys or tokens such as OAuth access tokens or JWTs. People talk about 'two-factor authentication' and say 'Authentication failed.'

Example sentences

  1. All endpoints except the health check need authentication.

  2. Users get a 401 because the authentication token has expired.

Common collocations

  • require authentication
  • two-factor authentication
  • authentication token
  • authentication failed
  • APIShort for application programming interface: a set of rules that lets one program ask another program for data or actions in a fixed, documented way.
  • endpointA specific URL of an API that accepts requests for one kind of action, such as GET /users to list users or POST /orders to create an order.
  • status codeA three-digit number in an HTTP response that tells the client what happened, such as 200 for success, 404 for not found or 500 for a server error.
  • third-partyMade or provided by an outside company or developer, not by your own team, such as a payment service, library or analytics tool.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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