How to complete the challenge GET /todos (200) q JSON preferred

By Alan Richardson · Published 2026-08-14

This challenge reverses the previous preference: both XML and JSON are acceptable, but JSON has the higher quality value.

Issue a GET request on the /todos end point with an Accept header of application/xml;q=0.5, application/json;q=1 to receive results in JSON format.

Basic Instructions

• Issue a GET request to /todos
• Add the X-CHALLENGER header to track challenge completion
• Set Accept to application/xml;q=0.5, application/json;q=1
• Check that the response status is 200
• Check that the response Content-Type is application/json

Try it now

GET /todos with q-values preferring JSON

Example Request

> GET /todos HTTP/1.1
> Host: apichallenges.com
> X-CHALLENGER: x-challenger-guid
> Accept: application/xml;q=0.5, application/json;q=1

Example Response

< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Content-Type: application/json
< X-Challenger: x-challenger-guid

The response body should contain a JSON object with a todos array.

Lessons Learned

• application/json;q=1 outranks application/xml;q=0.5 even when XML appears first.
• Quality values are clearer than relying only on comma order in longer Accept headers.
• JSON and XML can both be acceptable while one format remains the preferred result.

Suggested Experiments

• Swap the order of the two media types without changing the quality values and confirm application/json still wins.
• Set both quality values to q=1 and observe how the server breaks the tie.
• Try Accept: application/problem+json;q=1, application/json;q=0.5 and check that the supported fallback is still usable.

Experiment with this endpoint