Before you start

You only need basic Python — variables, functions, and dictionaries. No prior web, HTTP, or API experience is required; every term is explained the first time it appears. If you'd like the Python foundation first, our Python for Data Analytics course has you covered. By the end you'll build and deploy a complete REST API, and you'll be ready for the Shipping AI Applications module of the Generative AI course.

Set up your environment

You can complete this course on any machine with Python 3.10+. One install gets you started; later modules add a few small packages where the course introduces them.

pip install "fastapi[standard]==0.138.1"

The [standard] extra bundles uvicorn (the server you'll run your app with) and everything you need for the early modules. The database, auth, and testing modules add sqlmodel, pyjwt, passlib[bcrypt], and pytest when you reach them — each lesson tells you exactly what to install. Everything runs locally; there's nothing to deploy and no account to create to follow along.

Tested with (June 2026)

• python 3.12
• fastapi 0.138.1
• uvicorn 0.49.0
• pydantic 2.x
• httpx 0.28.1
• sqlmodel (databases module)

FastAPI is stable, but tooling moves. If a package has changed since these versions, the patterns still apply — adjust the syntax to what you have installed.

Course features