400 Bad Request
The 400 Bad Request status code is a general error message sent by the server to indicate that the client's request was incorrect or improperly formatted.
The 400 Bad Request status code is a general error message sent by the server to indicate that the client's request was incorrect or improperly formatted. While specific 4XX codes exist for different types of client errors, the 400 status code serves as a catch-all for situations not explicitly covered by other codes.
It helps in situations where the server cannot pinpoint the exact issue with the client's request but still wants to convey that something is wrong.
When you encounter the 400 Bad Request error, the server is telling you that there's a problem with your request. You can check the message body for more details on what went wrong. Common reasons for this error include using illegal characters in the URL, uploading a file that's too large, or having invalid login cookies.
To fix it, you can try verifying the URL, clearing your browser's cookies, or compressing an oversized file. Just remember that search engines like Google won't index URLs with this error, so it's essential to address the issue promptly.
In the example, the client makes a request to the server, but the request contains invalid characters like curly brackets, which are not allowed in a URL. As a result, the server responds with a 400 Bad Request error to let the client know that something is wrong with the request.
To fix it, the client should remove or replace the curly brackets with valid characters before resending the request.
Request
GET /index{15}.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
Response
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 132
< html>
< head>
< title>Malformed URL<\title>
< /head>
< body>
< p>Invalid characters in HTTP request< /p>
< /body>
< /html>
The 400 Bad Request status code indicates that the server could not understand the client's request due to a mistake or invalid input.
When receiving this error, users should check their request for any incorrect characters or parameters and make necessary corrections to successfully communicate with the server.