# Generic Query Parameters
Every request to the RIPE Atlas API can be accompanied by one or more query parameters. This was already shown in the basic request featured.
Some of the available query parameters are specific to a request, most notably query parameters that are used as filters on Object List Resources. An example of such a query is:
There are also some query parameters that are available on all list requests and on all detail requests. Most of these have to do with structuring, formatting and browsing the data. These generic query parameters will be discussed in the next sections.
# A word of warning on query parameters
The RIPE Atlas APIs will silently ignore any unknown query parameters. This means that using an invalid query parameter name will return a "regular" response. This behaviour is necessary to accommodate some client programs. For example: The jQuery ajax() method passes in "garbage" query parameters to invalidate server-side caches.