What Is Statelessness?

When I speak of maintaining state, I am only speaking of client identification, which is accomplished by associating multiple HTTP requests.

Maintaining session, on the other hand, requires two related tasks:

  • Identifying the client (state management)

  • Retaining information about the client

Although the nature of HTTP messages has been explained in detail, you have yet to fully explore the stateless characteristic of the Web. It is fairly common knowledge among Web developers that HTTP (the Web) is stateless, and many believe this to be a shortcoming of HTTP. On the contrary, this is a characteristic that has been essential in the Web’s success, regardless of the challenges it has presented developers through the years.

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