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350-901 · Question #11

The response from a server includes the header ETag: W/"7e0808a419e371767916ef1360d8e83d". Which statement is true?

The correct answer is B. The ETag has a Weak validator directive, which is an optional directive. An ETag prefixed with W/ indicates a weak validator, and the W/ prefix itself is optional per RFC 7232.

Understanding and Using APIs

Question

The response from a server includes the header ETag: W/"7e0808a419e371767916ef1360d8e83d". Which statement is true?

Options

  • AThe ETag has a Strong validator directive.
  • BThe ETag has a Weak validator directive, which is an optional directive.
  • CThe ETag has a Weak validator directive, which is a mandatory directive.
  • DThe ETag has a Strong validator directive, which it is incorrectly formatted.

How the community answered

(27 responses)
  • B
    93% (25)
  • C
    4% (1)
  • D
    4% (1)

Why each option

An ETag prefixed with W/ indicates a weak validator, and the W/ prefix itself is optional per RFC 7232.

AThe ETag has a Strong validator directive.

The absence of W/ indicates strong validation; the W/ prefix explicitly marks this as weak.

BThe ETag has a Weak validator directive, which is an optional directive.Correct

The W/ prefix in an ETag value designates it as a weak validator, meaning it indicates semantic equivalence rather than byte-for-byte identity. Per RFC 7232, the W/ prefix is optional - its absence denotes a strong ETag, while its presence denotes a weak one. There is no requirement to include it for weak validation to be supported.

CThe ETag has a Weak validator directive, which is a mandatory directive.

The W/ prefix is optional, not mandatory - a server can choose whether to send weak or strong ETags.

DThe ETag has a Strong validator directive, which it is incorrectly formatted.

The ETag is correctly formatted as a weak validator with the W/ prefix followed by a quoted string.

Concept tested: HTTP ETag weak vs strong validator directives

Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/ETag

Topics

#HTTP Headers#ETag#Weak Validator#Web Caching

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