Web-App Back-End Development Guide

This is my guide for web-app backend development, based on selected courses from:

• the Meta Back-End Developer Professional Certificate specialization on Coursera (focusing on Django),
• and the Backend Developer with Python nanodegree on Udacity (focusing on Flask and SQLAlchemy).

From these specializations, I have selected the following topics/courses:

1. Introduction to Back-End Development
2. Introduction to Databases for Back-End Development
3. Django Web Framework
4. APIs
5. The Full Stack
6. Flask SQLAlchemy Data Modelling
7. Software Architecture Patterns
8. Implement NGINX Web Servers and Reverse Proxy Solutions

Strong Python and Git/Version Control skills are required for these courses.

Each of the topics/courses has its own sub-folder with the relevant materials, including notes, setup information, code snippets, and exercises.

Check also my following guides on related topics:

• Web-App Front-End Development Guide
• Web-App Deployment Guide
• DevOps and Software Engineering Guide
• Flask Guide

Each subdirectory may contain its own setup instructions. If you need a generic Python environment, you can use the following recipe based on uv:

# Create a virtual environment with the correct Python version
uv venv --python 3.11
# Install the dependencies from pyproject.toml/uv.lock
uv lock
uv sync
# Activate the virtual environment
# Windows PowerShell
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
# macOS/Linux
source .venv/bin/activate
# Start running commands in the environment
uv run python path/to/script.py
uv run pytest
# To update the submodules, run the following command:
git submodule update --init --recursive

Common uv usage commands:

# Add a dependency to pyproject.toml, update the lockfile, and install it
uv add <package>
# Remove a dependency from the project
uv remove <package>
# Refresh uv.lock without installing packages
uv lock
# Create/Sync the virtual environment with pyproject.toml and uv.lock
uv sync
# Run a command inside the project environment
uv run <command>

The environment variables are stored in the .env file, which is ignored by git. You can create a .env file with the necessary environment variables for your setup.

Mikel Sagardia, 2026.
No guarantees.