Returning Status Codes 🎯

Explicitly setting status codes in your responses tells clients exactly what happened.

Using Status Code Parameter

from fastapi import status

@app.post("/items", status_code=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
async def create_item(item: Item):
    return db.create(item)

Different Methods, Different Codes

# GET returns 200
@app.get("/items/{item_id}")
async def get_item(item_id: int):
    return item

# POST returns 201
@app.post("/items", status_code=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
async def create_item(item: Item):
    return item

# PUT returns 200
@app.put("/items/{item_id}")
async def update_item(item_id: int, item: Item):
    return item

# DELETE returns 204
@app.delete("/items/{item_id}", status_code=status.HTTP_204_NO_CONTENT)
async def delete_item(item_id: int):
    return None

Using HTTPException

from fastapi import HTTPException

@app.get("/items/{item_id}")
async def get_item(item_id: int):
    item = db.get(item_id)
    if not item:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=404,
            detail="Item not found"
        )
    return item

🔑 Key Takeaways

• ✅ Use status_code parameter for endpoints

• ✅ Use HTTPException for errors

• ✅ Include detail messages

• ✅ Different methods use different codes