Authentication documentation in Rest API - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Authentication Documentation for REST API

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple REST API that requires users to authenticate before accessing protected resources. You want to create clear documentation that explains how to authenticate using your API.

🎯 Goal: Create step-by-step authentication documentation that shows how to set up credentials, configure authentication headers, and test access to a protected endpoint.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a data structure to hold example user credentials

Add a configuration variable for the authentication token

Write the core logic to simulate checking the authentication token

Output the result of the authentication check

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

APIs often require users to prove who they are before giving access to data or services. This project shows how to document and simulate that process.

💼 Career

Understanding authentication is key for backend developers, API designers, and security engineers to protect applications and user data.

1

DATA SETUP: Create example user credentials

Create a dictionary called user_credentials with these exact entries: 'username': 'testuser' and 'password': 'securepass123'.

Rest API

# Create a dictionary called user_credentials with username and password
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces to create a dictionary with keys 'username' and 'password'.

2

CONFIGURATION: Add an authentication token variable

Create a variable called auth_token and set it to the string 'abc123token'.

Rest API

user_credentials = {'username': 'testuser', 'password': 'securepass123'}
# Create a variable called auth_token with value 'abc123token'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the string 'abc123token' to the variable auth_token.

3

CORE LOGIC: Simulate authentication check

Write an if statement that checks if auth_token equals 'abc123token'. If true, set a variable access_granted to True, else set it to False.

Rest API

user_credentials = {'username': 'testuser', 'password': 'securepass123'}
auth_token = 'abc123token'
# Check if auth_token equals 'abc123token' and set access_granted accordingly
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use an if-else statement to compare auth_token with the expected string.

4

OUTPUT: Display authentication result

Write a print statement that outputs 'Access granted' if access_granted is True, otherwise output 'Access denied'.

Rest API

user_credentials = {'username': 'testuser', 'password': 'securepass123'}
auth_token = 'abc123token'
if auth_token == 'abc123token':
    access_granted = True
else:
    access_granted = False
# Print 'Access granted' if access_granted is true, else print 'Access denied'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use an if statement to print the correct message based on access_granted.