FastAPI Development

Guidance for building APIs with FastAPI following best practices.

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Core Concepts

Route Decorators

Decorator	HTTP Method	Use Case
@app.get()	GET	Retrieve data
@app.post()	POST	Create resource
@app.put()	PUT	Full update
@app.patch()	PATCH	Partial update
@app.delete()	DELETE	Remove resource

Response Status Codes

Code	Meaning	When to Use
200	OK	Successful GET/PUT/PATCH
201	Created	Successful POST
204	No Content	Successful DELETE
400	Bad Request	Invalid input
401	Unauthorized	Authentication required
403	Forbidden	No permission
404	Not Found	Resource doesn't exist
422	Unprocessable	Validation failed

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Dependency Injection

Key concept: Dependencies are functions that FastAPI calls before your route handler. Use yield for cleanup logic.

Pattern	Use Case
Simple function	Get config, compute values
Generator (yield)	Database sessions, connections
Class-based	Complex dependencies with state
Nested dependencies	Dependencies that depend on other dependencies

Common Dependencies

Dependency	Purpose
get_db	Database session (yield for cleanup)
get_current_user	Authentication + user retrieval
get_settings	Configuration singleton
rate_limiter	Request throttling

Key concept: Use Annotated[Type, Depends(func)] for cleaner type hints and reusability.

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Pydantic Models

Model Patterns

Pattern	Purpose
Base model	Shared fields
Create model	Input for POST (no id)
Update model	Partial updates (all Optional)
Response model	Output (includes id, timestamps)
DB model	Internal with from_attributes = True

Validation Features

Feature	Purpose
Field(...)	Required with constraints
Field(default=...)	Optional with default
field_validator	Custom validation logic
model_validator	Cross-field validation
pattern=	Regex validation
ge=, le=	Numeric bounds
min_length=, max_length=	String/list length

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Error Handling

Approach	Use Case
HTTPException	Simple errors with status code
Custom exception class	Structured error responses
@app.exception_handler	Global error handling
RequestValidationError	Customize validation errors

Key concept: Create custom exception classes for consistent error response format across your API.

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Router Organization

Concept	Purpose
APIRouter	Group related endpoints
prefix	URL prefix for all routes
tags	OpenAPI documentation grouping
dependencies	Router-level dependencies

Project Structure

Directory	Contents
routers/	Route handlers by domain
models/	SQLAlchemy/database models
schemas/	Pydantic request/response models
services/	Business logic
dependencies.py	Shared dependencies
config.py	Settings and configuration

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Background Tasks

Method	Use Case
BackgroundTasks	Simple async tasks (email, logging)
Celery	Heavy tasks, retries, scheduling
ARQ	Async Redis queue

Key concept: BackgroundTasks run after response is sent—good for non-critical operations that shouldn't block the response.

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Testing Patterns

Client	Use Case
TestClient	Sync tests (most common)
AsyncClient (httpx)	Async tests, lifespan events

Dependency Override Pattern

1. Create test version of dependency
2. Set app.dependency_overrides[original] = test_version
3. Run tests
4. Clear overrides after

Key concept: Override get_db for test database, get_current_user for auth bypass.

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Best Practices

Practice	Why
Use response_model	Control output, hide internal fields
Use dependency injection	Testable, reusable code
Separate schemas from DB models	Decouple API from database
Use routers for organization	Maintainable as API grows
Add OpenAPI descriptions	Self-documenting API
Use async for I/O	Better concurrency

Resources

• Docs: https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/
• Tutorial: https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/tutorial/