๐ Learn API development with Python๐ Core Skills Before API Development
Python Fundamentals
- Functions, classes, error handling
- JSON handling (json module)
- Virtual environments (venv, pipenv, or poetry)
HTTP Basics
- What is an API? (REST, GraphQL, gRPC basics)
- HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE
- Status codes: 200, 201, 400, 401, 404, 500
๐ ๏ธ API Development with Python
1. Frameworks
- Flask (lightweight, easy for beginners)
- FastAPI (modern, async, automatic docs with Swagger/OpenAPI โ highly recommended)
- Django REST Framework (DRF) (for large apps with Django)
๐ Start with FastAPI if your goal is modern, production-ready APIs.
2. Core Concepts
- Routing (endpoints like /users, /products)
- Path & query parameters
- Request & response handling (JSON input/output)
- Middleware (logging, authentication, error handling)
3. Data & Persistence
- Working with databases:
- SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite)
- ORMs: SQLAlchemy or Django ORM
- CRUD operations with database integration
4. Authentication & Security
- JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
- OAuth2 (Google, GitHub login)
- API key-based authentication
- CORS handling
5. Testing & Documentation
- Writing tests with pytest or unittest
- Automatic API docs (FastAPI auto-generates Swagger UI)
- Postman or cURL for testing endpoints
6. Deployment & Scaling
- Running APIs with Uvicorn or Gunicorn
- Containerization with Docker
- CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
- Cloud deployment (AWS, GCP, Azure, or Heroku)
๐ Suggested Learning Path:
Learn FastAPI โ build a simple "To-Do API"
Connect a database โ PostgreSQL + SQLAlchemy
Add authentication โ JWT-based login
Write tests โ pytest for endpoints
Deploy on Docker + Cloud