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What is the difference between authentication and authorization?
A must-know backend and full-stack interview question for login, roles, and access control.
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KASA answer
Authentication answers the question: who are you? It usually happens through passwords, OTP, OAuth, SSO, or tokens. Authorization answers: what are you allowed to do? It checks permissions, roles, ownership, plan access, or policies after the user identity is known.
For example, logging in with email and password is authentication. Allowing only admins to access an admin dashboard is authorization. A secure system needs both because a logged-in user should not automatically have access to every resource.
Cover these points
- Authentication verifies identity.
- Authorization checks permission.
- Authorization happens after authentication.
- Examples: login versus admin-only access.
- Both are required for secure systems.
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