Django
Python's most popular web framework — a batteries-included toolkit for building production web applications and APIs quickly and securely.
Django is the dominant web framework in the Python ecosystem and the standard choice for Python developers building web applications. It follows a 'batteries included' philosophy — authentication, ORM, admin interface, form handling, and security protections (CSRF, XSS, SQL injection) are built in rather than bolted on. Django powers Instagram, Pinterest, Disqus, and Mozilla. It is the most commonly listed Python framework in backend and full-stack job postings, often paired with PostgreSQL and deployed on AWS or GCP.
Typical time to job-readiness: ~6 weeks.
Learning Django
Beginner
Follow the official Django tutorial to build a polls app — it covers models, views, URLs, and templates end to end. Get comfortable with the Django ORM (querysets, filters, related objects) and the built-in admin panel.
Intermediate
Django REST Framework (DRF) for API development, class-based views, custom model managers, signals, and Celery for background tasks. Learn how migrations work under the hood so you can safely alter production schemas.
Advanced
Performance optimization with select_related/prefetch_related, caching with Redis, custom middleware, and async views (Django 4.1+). Django interviews typically include a live coding problem plus architecture discussion — be ready to explain your ORM query choices.
Key concepts
- MVT architecture: Model (data), View (logic), Template (presentation) — Django's variation on MVC
- ORM: define Python classes, Django maps them to database tables and generates SQL
- Migrations: version-controlled database schema changes generated from model definitions
- URLconf: maps URL patterns to view functions in urls.py
- Django REST Framework (DRF): serializers, viewsets, and routers for building APIs
- Django admin: auto-generated CRUD interface for your models, useful for internal tools
Common interview topics
- Explain how Django's ORM generates SQL — what is the N+1 problem
- What is the difference between select_related and prefetch_related
- How does Django's authentication system work
- How do you write and run a Django migration safely in production
- Explain how Django REST Framework serializers work