Which architectural style does FHIR support?

• A. RESTful architectures
• B. SOAP-based architectures
• C. GraphQL-based architectures
• D. FTP-based exchanges

Answer: (A)

FHIR is defined around RESTful web services. In this style, each clinical concept is treated as a resource with a unique URL, and standard HTTP methods govern interactions: GET to read, POST to create, PUT or PATCH to update, and DELETE to remove. This makes data exchange stateless, scalable, and easy to cache, using familiar web patterns and formats like JSON or XML. Searching and filtering are done through HTTP query parameters on resource URLs, which supports flexible, interoperable data retrieval across systems. While other architectures exist in practice, the FHIR specification centers on RESTful design as its primary mode of operation, rather than SOAP-based services, GraphQL, or FTP exchanges.