What is the purpose of ResponseEntity?

ResponseEntity<T> represents a complete HTTP response - status code, headers, and body - giving a controller method full control over what's sent back, rather than just returning a body and letting Spring pick a default 200 OK status.

@GetMapping("/{id}")
public ResponseEntity<Product> getProduct(@PathVariable Long id) {
    Product product = productService.findById(id);
    if (product == null) {
        return ResponseEntity.notFound().build();
    }
    return ResponseEntity.ok(product);
}

This is especially useful for returning 404 Not Found, 201 Created with a Location header after a POST, or custom headers like caching directives. Returning a plain Product object instead always yields 200 OK, so ResponseEntity is the standard tool whenever the status code itself needs to vary.

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