HTTP Status Codes Cheat Sheet

Overview of HTTP response codes and their respective purpose

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API: /api/v1/cheatsheet/http-status-codes-cheat-sheet

1xx — Informational

Code Meaning Notes
100 Continue Client should continue request
101 Switching Protocols e.g. HTTP → WebSocket
102 Processing Server is working (WebDAV)

Rarely used in frontend/backend code directly

2xx — Success

Code Meaning Usage
200 OK Standard success (GET, PUT)
201 Created Resource created (POST)
202 Accepted Processing async
204 No Content Success, no body (DELETE)
206 Partial Content Range requests (downloads, streaming)

Example: HTTP/1.1 200 OK

3xx — Redirection

Code Meaning Notes
301 Moved Permanently SEO-relevant redirect
302 Found Temporary redirect
303 See Other Redirect after POST
304 Not Modified Cache hit
307 Temporary Redirect Keeps method
308 Permanent Redirect Keeps method

301/308 = permanent 302/307 = temporary

4xx — Client Errors

Code Meaning Usage
400 Bad Request Invalid input
401 Unauthorized Missing/invalid auth
403 Forbidden Auth OK, no permission
404 Not Found Resource missing
405 Method Not Allowed Wrong HTTP method
406 Not Acceptable Cannot satisfy headers
408 Request Timeout Client too slow
409 Conflict State conflict (e.g. duplicate)
410 Gone Permanently removed
413 Payload Too Large Request too big
415 Unsupported Media Type Wrong content type
422 Unprocessable Entity Validation failed (common in APIs)
429 Too Many Requests Rate limiting

Example: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

5xx — Server Errors

Code Meaning Notes
500 Internal Server Error Generic failure
501 Not Implemented Feature missing
502 Bad Gateway Upstream server error
503 Service Unavailable Server overloaded/down
504 Gateway Timeout Upstream timeout

Practical API Mapping

Typical REST patterns

  • GET success 200
  • POST created 201
  • DELETE success 204
  • Invalid input 400 / 422
  • Unauthorized 401
  • Forbidden 403
  • Not found 404
  • Server crash 500

Important Distinctions

401 vs 403

  • 401 → not authenticated
  • 403 → authenticated but not allowed

400 vs 422

  • 400 → malformed request
  • 422 → valid format, invalid data

301 vs 308 - Both permanent - 308 preserves HTTP method, 301 may not

Quick Reference

  • 1xx → Info
  • 2xx → Success
  • 3xx → Redirect
  • 4xx → Client error
  • 5xx → Server error

Most Common Codes

  • 200 OK
  • 201 Created
  • 204 No Content
  • 301 Moved Permanently
  • 302 Found
  • 304 Not Modified
  • 400 Bad Request
  • 401 Unauthorized
  • 403 Forbidden
  • 404 Not Found
  • 409 Conflict
  • 422 Unprocessable Entity
  • 429 Too Many Requests
  • 500 Internal Server Error
  • 502 Bad Gateway
  • 503 Service Unavailable
  • 504 Gateway Timeout

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