Representational state transfer

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a way of communicating information over the internet. It is an architecture that enables computers and people to talk to each other. It helps web browsers and servers communicate with each other.

When you go to a website, your web browser sends a request to the web server. The web server then sends a response back, including the web page that you wanted to see. The web page is the "representation" of the requested "state", and the web browser and the web server are transferring information back and forth. That's why the architecture is called representation state transfer.

So, in short, REST is a way of making sure that web browsers and web servers can understand each other and transfer data back and forth.