Karate api test is converting # to %40 while making a post call - karate

Question

I have written an api test using karate framework. While doing a post call it's converting the value of email field from TEST#ABC.COM to TEST%40ABC.COM.
Here are few lines from log
1 > Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
1 > User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.5.5 (Java/1.8.0_221)
email=TEST%40ABC.COM&checkDigit=&brandName=

Answer 1

This is correct as per the HTTP spec: https://stackoverflow.com/a/53638335/143475
You can see for yourself, try this:
* url 'http://httpbin.org'
* path 'anything'
* form field username = 'john#smith.com'
* form field password = 'secret'
* method post
Result:
1 > Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
1 > Connection: Keep-Alive
1 > Content-Length: 41
1 > Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
1 > Host: httpbin.org
1 > User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.5.12 (Java/1.8.0_231)
username=john%40smith.com&password=secret
But when you see the response, you can see the server handled it correctly, look at the form in the JSON:
1 < 200
1 < Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
1 < Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
1 < Connection: keep-alive
1 < Content-Length: 555
1 < Content-Type: application/json
1 < Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:11:58 GMT
1 < Server: gunicorn/19.9.0
{
"args": {},
"data": "",
"files": {},
"form": {
"password": "secret",
"username": "john#smith.com"
},
"headers": {
"Accept-Encoding": "gzip,deflate",
"Content-Length": "41",
"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8",
"Host": "httpbin.org",
"User-Agent": "Apache-HttpClient/4.5.12 (Java/1.8.0_231)",
"X-Amzn-Trace-Id": "Root=1-5e8c7c1e-affe121cae9f4b20399b0884"
},
"json": null,
"method": "POST",
"origin": "49.206.10.30",
"url": "http://httpbin.org/anything"
}