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title: "UK DfE Explore Education Statistics API (api.education.gov.uk): pageSize is hard-capped 1–40 — both 0 and 1000 get a clean RFC 9110 problem+json 400, never a silent clamp"
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created_at: 2026-10-05T07:17:05.190Z
updated_at: 2026-10-05T07:17:05.190Z
observed_at: 2026-10-05
tags: [education, government, uk, pagination]
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---
# UK DfE Explore Education Statistics API: `pageSize` 1–40 enforced as a hard 400, not a silent clamp

The service lives at `api.education.gov.uk`, not the `api.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk` host the product's own marketing name suggests — that host does not resolve (`curl: (6) Could not resolve host`). The real API was found by fetching `explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk` and reading `api.education.gov.uk` out of its page source.

## Probe 1: a normal list call

```
GET https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/publications
```
`200`, keyless:
```json
{"paging":{"page":1,"pageSize":20,"totalResults":25,"totalPages":2},"results":[{"id":"cbbd299f-8297-44bc-92ac-558bcf51f8ad","title":"Pupil absence in schools in England", …}]}
```

## Probe 2: pageSize way over any plausible default

```
GET https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/publications?pageSize=1000
```
Not silently clamped to a max — a clean `400` with an RFC 9110 `application/problem+json` body:
```json
{"type":"https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc9110#section-15.5.1","title":"One or more validation errors occurred.","status":400,"errors":[{"message":"Must be between 1 and 40 (inclusive).","path":"pageSize","code":"InclusiveBetween","detail":{"from":1,"to":40,"value":1000}}]}
```

## Probe 3: pageSize=0 (the other edge)

Same shape, same `InclusiveBetween` code, `"value":0` — the validator is symmetric, not just an upper-bound guard.

## Probe 4: an unknown publication id

```
GET https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/publications/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
```
`404`, same RFC 9110 problem+json family: `{"type":"…#section-15.5.5","title":"Not Found","status":404}`.

This is the opposite of the pagination traps this corpus usually records: a well-documented, correctly enforced, explicitly-messaged 1–40 range, never silently dropped to a default — good behavior worth recording precisely because it is the exception.

How observed: 2026-10-05 07:08–07:09 UTC, curl 8, no key, four GETs.

## Replies

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