Django Mastery: From Beginner to Expert

A comprehensive 16-week Django mentorship curriculum designed to take you from complete beginner to production-ready expert. Built with modern tools, real-world projects, and a scalable submission system for 1000+ learners.

🌟 Star this repo if you're learning Django or find it useful!
🔀 Fork it to start your journey and submit your weekly work.

🎯 Program Overview

This curriculum is structured into weekly tasks, each building upon the previous. By the end, you'll have built multiple real-world projects and understand Django's internals deeply.

Week 01-04:  Foundation       → Python, Environment, Django Basics
Week 05-08:  Core Django      → Models, Views, Templates, Forms
Week 09-12:  Advanced Django  → REST APIs, Authentication, Testing
Week 13-16:  Production       → Deployment, Performance, Security

🛠️ Required Tools

We enforce modern, best-practice tooling throughout this program:

Tool	Purpose	Why Not Alternatives
uv	Package & environment management	10-100x faster than pip, replaces pip, pip-tools, virtualenv, and pyenv
ruff	Linting & formatting	Replaces flake8, black, isort - single tool, blazingly fast
pytest	Testing	More pythonic, better fixtures than unittest
pre-commit	Git hooks	Automate code quality checks
Docker	Containerization	Consistent environments
PostgreSQL	Database	Production-grade, what you'll use in real jobs

📁 Repository Structure

django-mentorship/
├── README.md                    # This file
├── week-01-environment-setup/   # Python, uv, Git fundamentals
├── week-02-python-foundations/  # Python concepts for Django
├── week-03-django-intro/        # First Django project
├── week-04-models-basics/       # ORM fundamentals
├── week-05-views-urls/          # Request/response cycle
├── week-06-templates/           # Django template language
├── week-07-forms/               # Form handling & validation
├── week-08-admin/               # Django admin customization
├── week-09-authentication/      # Users, permissions, sessions
├── week-10-rest-api/            # Django REST Framework
├── week-11-testing/             # pytest & test strategies
├── week-12-advanced-orm/        # Complex queries, optimization
├── week-13-caching-performance/ # Redis, query optimization
├── week-14-celery-async/        # Background tasks
├── week-15-deployment/          # Docker, CI/CD, production
└── week-16-capstone/            # Final project

🚀 Getting Started

1. Fork & Clone This Repository

# Fork on GitHub first, then:
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/django-mentorship.git
cd django-mentorship

2. Install uv (Our Package Manager)

# macOS/Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Windows
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

# Verify installation
uv --version

3. Start with Week 01

Navigate to week-01-environment-setup/ and follow the README.

📋 Weekly Workflow

Each week follows this pattern:

1. Read the week's README completely
2. Study linked documentation sections
3. Complete the exercises in order
4. Build the weekly project in your fork
5. Submit: Create a branch submission/<your-github-username>/week-XX, push to your fork, and open a Pull Request to this repo's main (for review only – no merges!)
6. Review: Get feedback from mentors/community

   Why this works at scale: Forks isolate work (no overrides), PRs allow unlimited reviews without touching main. Main repo stays clean with only challenges.

✅ Completion Checklist

Track your progress:

• Week 01: Environment Setup
• Week 02: Python Foundations
• Week 03: Django Introduction
• Week 04: Models Basics
• Week 05: Views & URLs
• Week 06: Templates
• Week 07: Forms
• Week 08: Admin
• Week 09: Authentication
• Week 10: REST API
• Week 11: Testing
• Week 12: Advanced ORM
• Week 13: Caching & Performance
• Week 14: Celery & Async
• Week 15: Deployment
• Week 16: Capstone Project

📚 Primary Resources

• Django Official Documentation
• Django REST Framework
• Two Scoops of Django (Recommended)
• uv Documentation
• ruff Documentation

🎓 Learning Philosophy

1. Type everything - No copy-paste. Muscle memory matters.
2. Read errors carefully - They tell you exactly what's wrong.
3. Use documentation first - Before Stack Overflow, read the docs.
4. Understand, don't memorize - Know WHY, not just HOW.
5. Build real things - Theory without practice is useless.

🔗 Open Source & Contributing

This project is open source! Help make it better:

• Improve weeks/exercises
• Fix typos or add explanations
• Translate content

Ready? Start with Week 01: Environment Setup