HttpBin is a simple HTTP request & response service. It is incredibly useful when you need to verify if your HTTP client (curl, Python requests, Go http, etc.) is sending the data you expect.

Common Endpoints

1. Inspect Request Data

Verify headers, query params, and body.

• GET /get: Returns GET arguments.
• POST /post: Returns POST data.
• PUT /put: Returns PUT data.

Example: Check if your query parameters are encoded correctly.

curl "https://httpbin.org/get?name=navy&age=30"

Response:

{
  "args": {
    "age": "30",
    "name": "navy"
  },
  ...
}

2. Inspect Headers

Check if your custom headers are actually being sent.

curl -H "X-Custom-Header: value" https://httpbin.org/headers

3. Test Status Codes

Check how your application handles different HTTP errors.

• GET /status/:code: Returns given HTTP Status code.

# Test 404 handling
curl -I https://httpbin.org/status/404

# Test 500 handling
curl -I https://httpbin.org/status/500

4. Test Response Formats

• GET /json: Returns a simple JSON object.
• GET /xml: Returns a simple XML document.

Debugging Scenario

Imagine you have a complex XML payload that fails on the production server. You can’t see what the server receives.

1. Change the URL: Point your client to https://httpbin.org/post.
2. Send Request: Trigger the action in your app.
3. Inspect Response: HttpBin will echo back exactly what it received (headers, body content type, raw string).
4. Compare: You might find that your library added an extra wrapper or the encoding was wrong.

Useful URL: https://httpbin.org/