SampleAPI

Status codes & delay

Two tiny endpoints that make it trivial to test the error paths and timing behavior of any HTTP client.

https://sampleapi.top/api

Base URL — append any path below.

Endpoints

MethodPathDescription
ANY/status/{code}Return the given HTTP status code (100–599). Any verb is accepted.
GET/delay/{seconds}Sleep up to 5 seconds before responding. Fractional values (e.g. 1.5) are allowed.

Common status codes

CodeNameWhy test itTry
200 OK Standard success response. /status/200
201 Created Resource was created (or simulated to be). /status/201
202 Accepted Request accepted, processing later. /status/202
204 No Content No response body. Useful for delete confirmations. /status/204
301 Moved Permanently Test how your client handles permanent redirects. /status/301
302 Found Temporary redirect, common in OAuth flows. /status/302
304 Not Modified Cache-validation response, no body. /status/304
400 Bad Request Generic client error. /status/400
401 Unauthorized Missing credentials. /status/401
403 Forbidden Credentials present but not allowed. /status/403
404 Not Found Classic missing resource. /status/404
409 Conflict Useful for testing optimistic-concurrency error paths. /status/409
418 I'm a teapot Strictly for fun. /status/418
422 Unprocessable Entity Validation failures. /status/422
429 Too Many Requests Rate-limit handling. /status/429
500 Internal Server Error Generic server failure. /status/500
502 Bad Gateway Upstream failure. /status/502
503 Service Unavailable Test retry-with-backoff. /status/503
504 Gateway Timeout Test long-tail timeout handling. /status/504

Any code from 100 to 599 is accepted, not just the ones listed above.

Examples

Force a 503

curl -i https://sampleapi.top/api/status/503

Test retry with exponential backoff

// Pseudo-code
for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 4; attempt++) {
  const r = await fetch('https://sampleapi.top/api/status/503');
  if (r.ok) break;
  await sleep(Math.pow(2, attempt) * 250);
}

Add 3 seconds of delay to test client timeout

curl -s -m 2 https://sampleapi.top/api/delay/3 \
  || echo "client hit its 2s timeout, as expected"

POST that returns 201

curl -s -X POST https://sampleapi.top/api/status/201

Notes

  • Statuses that have no body by spec (204, 205, 304) return an empty body, as required.
  • Delay is capped at 5 seconds. Anything larger is clamped.
  • Negative or non-numeric delays are treated as zero.