GIAC Foundational Cybersecurity Technologies Practice Test

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What HTTP protocol request retrieves metadata without the data?

PUT
HEAD
GET
POST

The correct answer is: HEAD

The HEAD request method in the HTTP protocol is designed specifically to retrieve the headers or metadata associated with a resource without fetching the actual body of the resource. This means it allows a client to obtain information such as content type, content length, and last modified date, which can be useful for clients that need to understand resource attributes without downloading the entire content. Using HEAD can be advantageous for several reasons. For instance, it reduces bandwidth usage because the body of the data is not transmitted. This can be particularly important in scenarios where knowing the characteristics of a file is sufficient for a particular operation, such as checking if the resource has been modified or assessing whether it’s worth downloading. On the other hand, other methods like GET are utilized to retrieve both headers and the body of the resource, while PUT and POST are employed for sending data to the server to be created or processed, which includes body content. Consequently, HEAD stands out as the method tailored for accessing metadata exclusively.