Modern Django APIs

Modern Django APIs provides a definitive guide to designing, building, and maintaining robust, secure, and scalable web APIs using Django and Django REST Framework. Unlike typical tutorials or "build a CRUD app" books, this text teaches first-principles backend engineering, showing how to think critically about API design, architecture, performance, and security.

Through 50 comprehensive chapters, the book guides readers from foundational concepts—like REST principles, resource modeling, and Django's platform capabilities—to advanced strategies for authentication, authorization, versioning, observability, and long-term API evolution. Each chapter introduces real-world problems, common but flawed approaches, and deliberate, justified solutions with minimal, precise code. Readers learn why each architectural choice matters, how to avoid pitfalls, and how to design APIs that can survive scale, change, and complexity.

With emphasis on systemic thinking, trade-offs, and resilience, this book equips backend engineers, API designers, and technical leads to write APIs that are not only functional but durable, maintainable, and strategically sound. By the end, readers will understand how clarity, security, and discipline in API design create real-world value and long-term maintainability.