Introductory experience building, consuming, testing, or documenting REST APIs, including understanding HTTP methods, request/response formats, status codes, headers, authentication basics, validation, error handling, versioning concepts, and integration with front-end applications or external services. Introductory experience with relational, NoSQL, or in-memory databases, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, or similar technologies, including basic querying, data modeling, schema design, indexing concepts, data access patterns, and integration with applications or APIs.