What is a DELETE request?

A DELETE request is an HTTP request that tells a server to remove a resource. It’s the most straightforward of the HTTP methods. You’re telling the server “get rid of this.”

DELETE requests are idempotent. If you send a DELETE for a resource that doesn’t exist (because it was already deleted), the server typically returns a 404, but the end state is the same: the resource is gone. Sending the delete request twice has no worse effect than sending it once.

In REST API design, DELETE is the standard way to remove a resource. A DELETE to /users/42 should delete the user with ID 42. The server usually responds with a 200 or 204 (No Content) to confirm the deletion.

One thing to keep in mind is that many applications implement soft deletes rather than actually removing data. A soft delete marks a record as deleted in the database but keeps it around for auditing or recovery. From the client’s perspective it looks the same, but the data is still there behind the scenes.