diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b2b9ff12c..df2af7184 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 - (Feature) Add DebugPackage to the OPS Binary
 - (Feature) (Networking) ArangoRoute Protocol
 - (Feature) (Platform) Platform Requirements support
+- (Improvement) Drop slash requirement from ArangoRoute
 
 ## [1.2.43](https://github.com/arangodb/kube-arangodb/tree/1.2.43) (2024-10-14)
 - (Feature) ArangoRoute CRD
diff --git a/pkg/apis/shared/validate.go b/pkg/apis/shared/validate.go
index ceaffcc8c..6063b251a 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/shared/validate.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/shared/validate.go
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ import (
 
 var (
 	resourceNameRE = regexp.MustCompile(`^([0-9\-\.a-z])+$`)
-	apiPathRE      = regexp.MustCompile(`^/([_A-Za-z0-9\-]+/)*$`)
+	apiPathRE      = regexp.MustCompile(`^(/[_A-Za-z0-9\-]+)*/?$`)
 )
 
 const (
diff --git a/pkg/apis/shared/validate_test.go b/pkg/apis/shared/validate_test.go
index 4a0dc4e93..263e7032b 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/shared/validate_test.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/shared/validate_test.go
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ func Test_ValidateAPIPath(t *testing.T) {
 	require.NoError(t, ValidateAPIPath(""))
 	require.NoError(t, ValidateAPIPath("/"))
 	require.Error(t, ValidateAPIPath("//"))
-	require.Error(t, ValidateAPIPath("/api/zz"))
+	require.NoError(t, ValidateAPIPath("/api/zz"))
 	require.NoError(t, ValidateAPIPath("/api/"))
 	require.NoError(t, ValidateAPIPath("/api/test/qw/"))
 	require.NoError(t, ValidateAPIPath("/api/test/2/"))