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2026-07-29 16:01
REST API

HEAD Request

RequestCacheValidateMedium
Try Interactive Demo

What you will learn

  • HEAD must return identical headers to GET — but zero body. Any body is a spec violation
  • Use HEAD to pre-check resource existence without downloading — cheap for large resources
  • Content-Length, ETag, Last-Modified must be present if GET would set them

Description

Use HEAD to check resource existence without body. Verify headers only.

Test Scenario

const response = await request.head('/api/v1/users/1');
expect(response.status()).toBe(200);
expect(response.headers()['content-length']).toBeDefined();
Endpoint/api/v1/users/:id

Testing Tips

  • •HEAD returns headers only, no body
  • •Check Content-Length header
  • •Use for cache validation
// Playwright API Testing - REST
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';


test('REST API request', async ({ request }) => {
  const response = await request.get('/api/v1/resource');


  expect(response.ok()).toBeTruthy();
  expect(response.status()).toBe(200);


  const data = await response.json();
  expect(data).toBeDefined();
});

Challenge ID: rest-head-request

2 frameworks available

API Playground

Send requests and inspect responses

Endpoint: /api/v1/users/:id

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