diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7bbc71c..8924c2e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -99,3 +99,6 @@ ENV/
 
 # mypy
 .mypy_cache/
+
+.vscode/
+
diff --git a/.python-version b/.python-version
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09008b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.python-version
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+api-3.6.8
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 76265be..ad9e8d8 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-dist: trusty
+dist: xenial
 language: python
 cache: pip
 python:
-  - '2.7'
+  - '3.7'
 install:
   - pip install -r requirements.txt
   - pip install coveralls
diff --git a/app.py b/app.py
index 508091d..75f2633 100644
--- a/app.py
+++ b/app.py
@@ -34,13 +34,13 @@ def valid_date(date):
     Does a quick check on the date to avoid doing a db dip to get an error we could have avoided
 
     Args:
-        date (basestring): the date input that we're validating
+        date (string): the date input that we're validating
 
     Returns:
         bool: whether or not we think the given input string is a date or not
 
     """
-    if not isinstance(date, basestring):
+    if date is None:
         return False
 
     try:
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b1a994e..dc261d1 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 Flask==1.0.2
-zappa==0.47.1
+zappa==0.48.2
 Flask-Cors==3.0.7
 Flask-Compress==1.4.0
-pytest==4.3.0
+pytest==4.4.0
 pytest-cov==2.6.1
-git+https://github.com/multiplechoice/sqlalchemy-mappings.git@2e5cab4d771137d42b59bf88fd92b7db6f1dbb3a
-
+git+https://github.com/multiplechoice/sqlalchemy-mappings.git@17e50cfb97695badb192156ff98c39c07024d0ff
diff --git a/tests/test_grouping.py b/tests/test_grouping.py
index 386cc50..f7654d8 100644
--- a/tests/test_grouping.py
+++ b/tests/test_grouping.py
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ def test_group_by_spider():
 
 def test_group_when_key_missing():
     grouped = group_results(examples, 'this_key_doesnt_exist')
-    assert grouped.keys() == ['unknown']
+    assert list(grouped.keys()) == ['unknown']
     assert grouped['unknown'] == examples