Backend Developer Masterclass with Python and Django

Below is a complete, structured course curriculum for a Backend Developer program with Django as the primary backend language, aligned with industry expectations, interviews, and production systems.

This curriculum is suitable for:

  • Beginners → Advanced backend developers
  • Job-oriented training
  • Startup / SaaS product builders
  • Full-stack (React + Django) alignment later

Backend Developer Course Curriculum

Primary Stack: Python + Django + Django REST Framework

Outcome: Become a production-ready backend engineer capable of building, scaling, and deploying real-world backend systems.

Duration: 20–24 weeks Effort: 2–3 hours/day Level: Beginner → Senior-ready foundations

PHASE 1 — Programming Foundations

Module 1: Python for Backend Developers

  • Variables & data types
  • Control flow
  • Functions & arguments
  • Error handling
  • Modules & packages
  • Virtual environments
  • Python standard library essentials

Module 2: OOP & Python Internals

  • Classes & objects
  • Inheritance vs composition
  • Encapsulation & abstraction
  • Functional programming concepts
  • Memory management basics
  • Writing clean, maintainable code

Mini Project

  • CLI-based task manager
  • File-based persistence

PHASE 2 — Web & Backend Fundamentals

Module 3: Web & Internet Fundamentals

  • How the web works
  • DNS
  • HTTP / HTTPS
  • HTTP methods & status codes
  • Headers, cookies, sessions
  • REST principles
  • CORS
  • WebSockets (intro)

Module 4: Backend Architecture

  • Client–server model
  • Monolithic vs modular monolith
  • Microservices architecture
  • Event-driven systems
  • Stateless vs stateful services
  • Request–response lifecycle

PHASE 3 — Django Core Framework

Module 5: Django Fundamentals

  • Django project & app structure
  • Settings & configuration
  • URL routing
  • Views
  • Templates (conceptual)
  • Static & media files
  • Django admin

Module 6: Django ORM (Deep Dive)

  • Models & fields
  • Relationships (FK, M2M, O2O)
  • QuerySets
  • Filtering, aggregation & annotation
  • Indexing & performance
  • Migrations & data migrations
  • Avoiding N+1 queries

Project

  • Blog / Inventory Management System (server-rendered)

PHASE 4 — Django REST Framework

Module 7: DRF Fundamentals

  • Serializers & ModelSerializers
  • APIViews vs ViewSets
  • Routers
  • Request & Response lifecycle
  • Status codes & error handling

Module 8: Advanced DRF

  • Authentication & permissions
  • JWT authentication (access & refresh)
  • Role-based access control
  • Pagination
  • Filtering & searching
  • Throttling & rate limiting
  • API versioning
  • File uploads

Module 9: Security in APIs

  • CSRF vs CORS
  • Password hashing
  • Secure authentication
  • Input validation
  • OWASP Top 10 (backend focus)

Project

  • REST API for E-commerce / SaaS backend

PHASE 5 — Databases & Data Access

Module 10: Relational Databases (PostgreSQL)

  • Data modeling
  • Normalization & denormalization
  • Indexes
  • Transactions
  • ACID properties
  • Query optimization

Module 11: ORM & Performance

  • ORM vs raw SQL
  • Lazy vs eager loading
  • Transactions
  • Connection pooling
  • Query profiling

PHASE 6 — Async, Caching & Background Jobs

Module 12: Caching & Performance

  • Redis fundamentals
  • Django cache framework
  • Cache invalidation strategies
  • HTTP caching
  • CDN basics
  • Read replicas (conceptual)

Module 13: Background Jobs

  • Sync vs async execution
  • Celery fundamentals
  • Redis as broker
  • Task retries & idempotency
  • Scheduled jobs (Celery Beat)
  • Event-driven processing

Project

  • Email / notification system with Celery

PHASE 7 — Testing, Observability & Reliability

Module 14: Testing Backend Systems

  • Unit testing
  • Integration testing
  • API testing
  • pytest + pytest-django
  • Mocking external services
  • Test data strategies
  • Load testing basics

Module 15: Logging & Monitoring

  • Structured logging
  • Log levels
  • Error tracking
  • Health checks
  • Metrics & alerts
  • Debugging production issues

PHASE 8 — Deployment & DevOps Basics

Module 16: Deployment Fundamentals

  • Linux basics
  • Environment variables
  • Gunicorn & WSGI
  • Nginx reverse proxy
  • Static & media handling
  • HTTPS
  • Production security settings

Module 17: DevOps Overview

  • Docker fundamentals
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Zero-downtime deployment
  • Rollback strategies
  • Scaling basics

PHASE 9 — Scalability & System Design

Module 18: Scalable Backend Design

  • Horizontal vs vertical scaling
  • Stateless services
  • Database sharding (conceptual)
  • Rate limiting strategies
  • Backpressure
  • Fault tolerance
  • High availability systems

Module 19: Messaging & Distributed Systems

  • Message queues
  • Pub/Sub
  • Event sourcing (conceptual)
  • Stream processing basics

PHASE 10 — Capstone Project

Capstone: Production-Grade Backend System

Build a real-world backend system with:

  • Django + DRF
  • JWT authentication
  • Role-based permissions
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis caching
  • Celery background jobs
  • Secure file uploads
  • Production deployment

Skill Level Outcomes

Junior Backend Developer

✔ Django + DRF basics

✔ REST APIs

✔ SQL fundamentals

✔ Authentication

Mid-Level Backend Developer

✔ Performance optimization ✔ Caching ✔ Background jobs ✔ Testing

Senior-Ready Foundations

✔ System design principles ✔ Scalability strategies ✔ Security leadership ✔ Production deployments

Career Roles This Course Prepares You For

  • Backend Developer (Django)
  • Python Backend Engineer
  • API Developer
  • Full-Stack Developer (with frontend)
  • SaaS Backend Engineer

Optional Extensions

  • React frontend integration
  • Frontend Developer Masterclass