Status code

How it is used

Codes are grouped: 2xx success, 3xx redirects, 4xx client errors and 5xx server errors. Developers say a request 'returns a 404' or 'is throwing 500s', and read the numbers aloud as 'four-oh-four' and 'five hundred'.

Example sentences

1. The API returns status code 401 when the token has expired.

2. Log every request with its status code and response time.

Common collocations

• return a status code
• HTTP status code
• 404 error
• 500 error
• success status code

Related terms

• responseThe message a server sends back after a request, with a status code, headers and usually a body such as HTML or JSON.
• HTTPHypertext Transfer Protocol: the set of rules that browsers and servers use to send requests and responses across the web.
• requestA message a client sends to a server asking for something, such as a web page, an image or data, or asking it to save a change.
• endpointA specific URL of an API that accepts requests for one kind of data or action, such as /api/users or /api/orders/42.

This word in other fields

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

• status code · Software Engineering

More terms: HTTP and APIs

• API
• JSON
• fetch
• REST API
• HTTP method
• header