Status code 203, known as "Non-Authoritative Information," is an HTTP response code that indicates the information you requested was delivered successfully, but there's a twist. The data itself comes from a secondary source, not the original server that holds the definitive version.
This typically happens in two scenarios:
Caching: A server acting as an intermediary, like a proxy server or content delivery network (CDN), might have a cached copy of the requested information. If it finds the data in its cache and it's considered valid, it'll deliver that instead of fetching the latest version from the original server. This improves performance by reducing load on the main server.
Transforming Proxy: A proxy server might alter the content of the response before sending it on to you. This could involve things like adding security headers or compressing the data.
In both cases, the 203 code lets you know that while the request was successful, the information you received might not be the absolute latest version.
Here are some additional points to consider: