How to complete the challenge PUT /api/todos no id (422)

By Alan Richardson · Published 2026-08-01

Issue a PUT request to /api/todos without an id in the URL or the request body.

The /api/todos endpoint exists, but the API cannot know which todo to update. Because the request reaches a valid endpoint but is missing required update information, the response should be 422 Unprocessable Content.

Basic Instructions

• Send PUT /api/todos
• Add an X-CHALLENGER header to track challenge completion
• Set Content-Type to application/json
• Do not include an id field in the JSON payload
• Include a valid title so the missing identifier is the relevant error
• Verify the response status is 422

Example body:

{
  "title": "missing identifier",
  "doneStatus": false,
  "description": "no id in URL or body"
}

Try it now

PUT /api/todos without an id in the URL or payload

Lessons Learned

• PUT /api/todos without any id leaves the server unable to identify the resource to replace.
• A full representation still needs a target identity for update semantics.
• 422 Unprocessable Content can signal missing addressing information, not just bad field data.

Suggested Experiments

• Add only the body id and compare this failure with the successful PUT /api/todos body-id challenge.
• Send the same no-id payload to POST /api/todos and observe whether create semantics differ.

Experiment with this endpoint