Which of the following best represents the definition of REST?

The best representation of the definition of REST is that it is lightweight and scalable. REST, which stands for Representational State Transfer, is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It emphasizes simplicity, scalability, and stateless communication between client and server.

The lightweight nature of REST is evident in its use of standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, which create a straightforward interface for web services. This simplicity makes it both easy to implement and easy for developers to understand and interact with, fostering an agile development environment.

Additionally, REST's scalability comes from its statelessness, meaning that each request from the client to the server must contain all the necessary information for the server to fulfill that request. This design allows for a robust distributed system where servers can be added or removed without impacting the overall application’s functionality, ensuring that it can handle growing workloads efficiently.

Other choices do not adequately capture the essence of REST. While protocol standards play a role in RESTful APIs, they are not the defining characteristic. XML is often used, but REST does not rely heavily on it or require its use; JSON is frequently favored for its lightweight format. Furthermore, REST does not limit output to XML; it can serve multiple content