DELETE Method — Removing Resources

How DELETE Works

The DELETE method removes the specified resource from the server. After a successful DELETE, subsequent GET requests to the same URI should return 404 Not Found or 410 Gone.

Properties

Property	Value
Safe	No
Idempotent	Yes
Cacheable	No
Request Body	Optional (rarely used)

Basic DELETE Request

DELETE /api/users/42 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.example.com
Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9...

Response Options

Servers typically respond with one of three status codes:

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{ "message": "User 42 deleted successfully" }

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
Content-Type: application/json

{ "message": "Deletion queued", "taskId": "abc-123" }

Status	When to Use
204 No Content	Resource deleted, no body needed
200 OK	Resource deleted, response includes details
202 Accepted	Deletion is asynchronous / queued

Idempotency of DELETE

DELETE is idempotent: deleting a resource that is already deleted should not produce an error. However, many APIs return 404 on a second DELETE, which is technically acceptable since the end state is the same — the resource no longer exists.

Soft Delete vs Hard Delete

• Hard delete: Resource is permanently removed from the database
• Soft delete: A deleted_at timestamp is set; the resource is filtered from queries but can be restored

-- Soft delete
UPDATE users SET deleted_at = NOW() WHERE id = 42;

-- Hard delete
DELETE FROM users WHERE id = 42;

Many production APIs use soft deletes for audit trails and data recovery.