🟦 Backend Developer Roadmap — Python / FastAPI Edition

This roadmap is inspired by roadmap.sh/backend and tailored for Python + FastAPI. It follows a 6–12 month structured learning path, including skills, concepts, and project ideas.

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🗂 Table of Contents

1. Web & Internet Fundamentals
2. Python Basics
3. FastAPI Fundamentals
4. Databases & ORM
5. Authentication & Security
6. Testing & Code Quality
7. Deployment & DevOps
8. Observability & Performance
9. Architecture & System Design
10. Final Portfolio Projects
11. Recommended Resources
12. Recommended Tools
13. Cloud Platforms

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1. 🌐 Web & Internet Fundamentals

Before touching Python or FastAPI, understand:

• HTTP / HTTPS
• Requests / Responses
• Status codes
• REST principles
• JSON, serialization
• DNS, SSL basics
• WebSockets (optional)

📌 Mini-Projects

• Build and inspect raw HTTP requests using curl
• Create a simple reverse proxy with Nginx

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2. 🐍 Python Basics

Master core Python before going backend:

📘 Core Concepts

• Variables, functions, loops, conditionals
• Lists, tuples, sets, dictionaries
• OOP: classes, inheritance, polymorphism
• Exceptions & error handling
• Modules & packages
• Virtual environments (venv, pip)
• Type hints (typing)
• Dataclasses
• Async / await fundamentals

📌 Mini-Projects

• CLI app (to-do list, calculator, expense tracker)
• Async script using asyncio

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3. ⚡️ FastAPI Fundamentals

FastAPI is modern, async-first, and very fast.

🧱 Core Features

• Creating routes & path operations
• Request/Response models
• Pydantic validation
• Query, path, body parameters
• Dependency injection system
• Background tasks
• Middleware
• Static files
• File uploads
• WebSockets

🧰 Required Tools

• Uvicorn (ASGI server)
• Gunicorn (Linux deploys)

📌 Mini-Projects

• CRUD API for notes or tasks
• Authentication-free blogging API

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4. 🗄️ Databases & ORM

Learn at least one relational + one NoSQL database.

🛢 SQL Databases

• PostgreSQL (recommended)
• MySQL / MariaDB
• SQLite (local dev)

🌿 NoSQL Databases

• MongoDB
• Redis (cache, messages, rate limiting)

🧰 ORM / ODM

• SQLModel (FastAPI-friendly)
• SQLAlchemy (industry standard)
• Tortoise ORM (async)
• MongoEngine / Motor (MongoDB)

📌 Mini-Projects

• API with SQLModel + PostgreSQL
• URL shortener with Redis

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5. 🔒 Authentication & Security

🔐 Learn

• OAuth2 & JWT with FastAPI
• Password hashing (Passlib, bcrypt)
• CORS
• Rate limiting
• CSRF (if templating)
• API keys
• RBAC (roles & permissions)

📌 Mini-Projects

• Auth microservice (JWT refresh tokens)
• User management API

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6. 🧪 Testing & Code Quality

🧪 Testing Tools

• pytest (standard)
• pytest-asyncio
• HTTPX for API tests
• Coverage

🧰 Code Quality

• Ruff (linting)
• Black (formatting)
• Mypy (typing)
• Pre-commit hooks

📌 Mini-Projects

• Create a fully tested CRUD API
• Write integration tests for routes

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7. 🚀 Deployment & DevOps

🐳 Containers

• Docker
• Docker Compose

☁️ Deployment Options

• AWS EC2 / ECS / Lambda
• Azure App Service
• Railway / Render
• Fly.io (easy FastAPI deploy)
• Kubernetes (advanced)

🧰 CI/CD

• GitHub Actions
• GitLab CI
• Docker registry pipelines

📌 Mini-Projects

• Deploy FastAPI + PostgreSQL using Docker
• CI pipeline that runs tests & redeploys

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8. 📊 Observability & Performance

🔍 Monitoring

• Logging (structlog, loguru)
• Metrics (Prometheus)
• Tracing (OpenTelemetry)

⚡ Performance

• async best practices
• connection pooling
• caching (Redis)
• background workers (Celery / RQ / Huey)

📌 Mini-Projects

• Implement caching for API endpoints
• Add observability with OpenTelemetry

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9. 🏛️ Architecture & System Design

🧱 Backend Architecture

• Clean Architecture
• Hexagonal Architecture
• Repository pattern
• DDD (optional)

🕸 System Design

• Load balancing
• Message queues (RabbitMQ, Kafka)
• Event-driven architecture
• Scaling & horizontal sharding

📌 Mini-Projects

• Event-driven service using Redis streams
• Service-to-service communication demo

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10. 📂 Final Portfolio Projects

Choose 2–4 major projects:

⭐ Project Ideas

• Full E-Commerce API (auth, products, orders, payments)
• AI-powered app using FastAPI + OpenAI API
• Microservices project with RabbitMQ/Kafka
• Real-time chat API using WebSockets
• SaaS app backend with Stripe billing
• Task Manager with Celery + Redis + FastAPI

Make sure each project includes:

• Authentication
• Database migrations
• Docker setup
• Tests
• Documentation (Swagger)
• Deployment

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11. 📚 Recommended Resources

📘 Books

• Fluent Python (Luciano Ramalho)
• Python Cookbook
• SQLAlchemy in Action

🎓 Courses

• FastAPI – Full Course by Sebastián Ramírez
• Udemy — FastAPI + SQLModel
• TalkPython courses

🎥 YouTube Channels

• Sebastián Ramírez (FastAPI creator)
• ArjanCodes (architecture)
• Tech With Tim
• Patrick Loeber
• CodeWithTom

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12. 🧰 Recommended Tooling

• VS Code or PyCharm
• Postman / Insomnia
• PgAdmin / TablePlus
• Docker Desktop
• RedisInsight

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13. 🌥️ Cloud Platforms to Learn

Choose one and master it:

• AWS (best for backend careers)
• Azure (great with Python & enterprise)
• GCP (modern + ML friendly)
• DigitalOcean / Vultr (simple)

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