FastAPI Made Simple: Build Lightning-Fast Python APIs in Minutes

Learn how to build fast, scalable, and production-ready APIs using FastAPI. This beginner-friendly guide covers GET, POST, JSON, status codes, and more.

Building APIs in Python used to be kind of a hassle. Then I found FastAPI—and honestly, it changed everything. It’s a newer framework that makes building APIs super fast, clean, and honestly... kind of fun.

Okay Josh, but why bother with FastAPI?

Because it just makes sense. FastAPI lets you build real, production-ready APIs without writing a ton of code. It uses Python’s type hints to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you—like checking inputs and creating automatic docs. And it’s fast too.

Like, really fast. Because under the hood, it’s powered by Starlette and Pydantic, which help keep everything running smooth.

Typically when you ask people their API framework preference we get into a debate about the big three. We have Flask, Django, and FastAPI. You may have used the first two I just said, and they get the job done, sure.

But FastAPI? It feels like Python finally nailed it. The code is easy to read, the performance is solid, and the automatic documentation it gives you is honestly one of the best parts.

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It gives you a super simple way to set up routes, handle requests, and build out your backend without overcomplicating things. Whether you’re putting together a small project for fun or building something bigger for work, it just fits right into your workflow.

What makes FastAPI special is that you get a lot right out of the box. It handles validation, works with async, and builds out clean API docs for you automatically—all without needing a bunch of extra setup.

And don’t think it’s just for small stuff. Big companies like Netflix and Microsoft are using it in production. It’s great for everything from REST APIs to machine learning endpoints to microservices.

I’ve got some ideas for bigger projects with FastAPI down the line, but today we’re sticking with the basics.

Let’s get started by installing FastAPI and the ASGI server that runs it:

pip3 install fastapi uvicorn

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Now open up your code editor, and let’s build something together.

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