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Database / Supabase basics Interview Questions

How does Supabase auto-generate REST APIs from a database schema?

Supabase runs PostgREST, a standalone server that introspects your Postgres schema at startup and turns every table, view, and stored procedure into a REST resource on the fly — there's no code generation step or API definition file to maintain.

A table named posts with columns id, title, and published automatically becomes queryable at /rest/v1/posts, and query string parameters map directly to SQL: ?published=eq.true&order=id.desc becomes a WHERE clause and ORDER BY. Because PostgREST talks to Postgres as the authenticated user's role, Row Level Security is applied automatically on every generated endpoint, so the API layer never becomes a way to bypass your data access rules.

What server does Supabase use to auto-generate REST endpoints from a Postgres schema?
Why can't the auto-generated REST API be used to bypass Row Level Security?

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More Related questions...

What is Supabase? What is the purpose of PostgreSQL within Supabase? What are the core services offered by Supabase? What is Supabase Authentication used for? What are the types of storage available in Supabase Storage? Define Row Level Security in Supabase? Describe the Supabase client library? What is the purpose of Supabase Edge Functions? List the API types Supabase auto-generates from your schema? How do you create a new Supabase project and connect to it? How does Supabase auto-generate REST APIs from a database schema? Why is Row Level Security important in a client-facing Supabase app? How does Supabase Realtime broadcast database changes to clients? What is the difference between the anon key and the service role key in Supabase? When should you use an Edge Function instead of a Postgres database function? How do you troubleshoot a valid query being blocked by Row Level Security? What is the difference between using Supabase Auth and rolling your own JWT-based authentication? How is data validated before insertion in a Supabase table? Why do we use database migrations in Supabase projects? What happens when a Postgres trigger fires on a table linked to Edge Function webhooks? Explain the execution flow of a request through Supabase's auto-generated API? Why doesn't Supabase recommend using the service_role key on the client? How can you optimize Postgres connection pooling for serverless Edge Functions? Explain the internal working of Row Level Security policy evaluation in Postgres? What is the difference between pgvector similarity search and hybrid search in Supabase? Which is better for real-time collaboration, Supabase Realtime or client-side polling, and why? How does Supabase handle connection pooling for high-concurrency workloads? Explain the lifecycle of a Supabase Auth session token? When would you choose self-hosting Supabase over the managed cloud offering? How do you optimize full-text search performance on a large Postgres table in Supabase?
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Supabase Intermediate to Advanced Interview Questions

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