What does the 403 Forbidden status code mean?

Short answer: It means the client is authenticated but not authorized to access the resource. 👉 Example: A normal user trying to access an admin-only endpoint.

Real-world example (ShopNest)

Creating an order is POST /api/orders → 201 with Location header. Fetching is GET /api/orders/{id} → 200 or 404.

Say this in the interview

1. Define — one clear sentence (the short answer above).
2. Example — relate it to a project like ShopNest or your real work.
3. Trade-off — when you would not use it.