Recognize HTTP Path

Task

Implement the function recognize_path.

• Write a function that takes an HTTP GET request string and returns the path type.
• If the path is /post, return the string literal "post"
• If the path is /react, return the string literal "react"
• If the path is /chats, return the string literal "chats"
• If the path is anything else, return NULL

Function Signature

// Given an HTTP GET request line, return "post", "react", "chats", or NULL
char* recognize_path(char* request);

Notes

• The path starts after GET and ends at either ? or a space
• Ignore any query parameters (everything after ?)
• Return the exact string literals "post", "react", or "chats" (not dynamically allocated)
• The path must match exactly (case-sensitive)

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Example

Request Line	Output
GET /post?user=joe&message=hi HTTP/1.1	post
GET /react?user=aaron&message=👍&id=5 HTTP/1.1	react
GET /chats HTTP/1.1	chats
GET /unknown HTTP/1.1	NULL
GET /reset HTTP/1.1	NULL

---

Code

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
 
char *recognize_path(char *request)
{
    char POST_PATH[] = "GET /post";
    char REACT_PATH[] = "GET /react";
    char CHATS_PATH[] = "GET /chats";
    if(strncmp(request, POST_PATH, strlen(POST_PATH)) == 0 
                    && (request[strlen(POST_PATH)] == '?' 
                    || request[strlen(POST_PATH)] == ' ')){
        return "post";
    } else if(strncmp(request, REACT_PATH, strlen(REACT_PATH)) == 0
                    && (request[strlen(REACT_PATH)] == '?' 
                    || request[strlen(REACT_PATH)] == ' ')){
        return "react";
    } else if(strncmp(request, CHATS_PATH, strlen(CHATS_PATH)) == 0
                    && (request[strlen(CHATS_PATH)] == '?' 
                    || request[strlen(CHATS_PATH)] == ' ')){
        return "chats";
    }
    return NULL;
}