Building a robust authentication and authorization strategy is crucial for developing secure RESTful APIs, with authentication verifying the user's identity and authorization determining their access to resources. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) and opaque tokens are common methods for managing these processes, each with advantages and drawbacks. JWTs allow for decentralized validation of user identity without a backing store, ideal for distributed microservices, but they can complicate immediate role changes and grow in size, affecting data traffic. Opaque tokens, in contrast, reference a database entry for user data, allowing for dynamic role adjustments but requiring maintenance of a key-value store and an authentication server. Tokens are typically managed through HTTP headers or cookies, with each method presenting distinct security considerations such as protection against cross-site request forgery (XSRF) and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Ultimately, the choice between these options depends on the specific requirements and constraints of the API environment.