How to complete the challenge `GET /api/todos (200) ? filter description wildcard`

By Alan RichardsonPublished 2026-07-31

How to issue a GET request on a top level entity endpoint and filter todos by matching the description with a wildcard pattern.

GET /api/todos (200) ? filter description wildcard

Issue a GET request on the /api/todos end point with a wildcard filter on description that returns todos with non-empty descriptions, requesting the response in JSON format.

description*=*fixture* means return todos where the description contains fixture
* matches any number of characters
? matches a single character
most tools and browsers will encode reserved characters for you when sending the request
every returned todo should have a non-empty matching description
the returned todo list should be JSON, so send Accept: application/json if the response is not JSON

Basic Instructions

Create or update a todo so it has a description containing fixture
Issue a GET request to end point "/api/todos"
- https://apichallenges.com/api/todos
The request should have an X-CHALLENGER header to track challenge completion
The request should have an Accept: application/json header so the API returns todos in JSON format
Add a wildcard filter:
- https://apichallenges.com/api/todos?description*=*fixture*
The response status code should be 200 because the request is accepted
Check that every returned description is non-empty and contains fixture

Try it now

If you need a matching todo, create one with a non-empty description containing fixture. See the solution.

POST /api/todos to create a wildcard filter fixture

Filter by wildcard:

GET /api/todos?description*=*fixture* to filter descriptions by wildcard

Example Request

> GET /api/todos?description*=*fixture* HTTP/1.1
> Host: apichallenges.com
> User-Agent: rest-client
> X-CHALLENGER: x-challenger-guid
> Accept: application/json

Example Response

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

Returned body:

{
  "todos": [
    {
      "id": 9,
      "title": "wildcard filter fixture",
      "doneStatus": false,
      "description": "created fixture for wildcard filter"
    }
  ]
}

Lessons Learned

The description*= query uses wildcard matching rather than regular-expression syntax.
* and ? patterns are easier for broad searches but less precise than regex filters.
Wildcard tests should prove both matching and non-matching descriptions.

Suggested Experiments

Change the wildcard from *fixture* to created* and compare how many descriptions match.
Try a single-character ? wildcard in the pattern and confirm it behaves differently from *.

Experiment with this endpoint

How to complete the challenge GET /api/todos (200) ? filter description wildcard