Learn Laravel REST APIs, Authentication, and Authorization
Define resources and response contracts
Use routes and HTTP methods that describe the resource operation. Return a consistent representation, appropriate status codes, and pagination metadata for collections. Validate input at the boundary and avoid exposing internal database fields by default.
Separate authentication from authorization
Authentication identifies a caller; authorization decides which action that caller may take. Apply checks to individual records, not just route access. Derive ownership from the authenticated identity rather than trusting a user identifier submitted by a client.
Test failure paths as part of the API
Document validation errors, unauthenticated access, forbidden actions, missing records, and rate-limit behavior. Tests should verify that one account cannot read or modify another account's records, even when the record identifier is known.
Practice task
Build a paginated project API with resource responses, validated filters, authentication, ownership policies, and tests for malformed input and cross-account access.