Full-Stack API Roadmap for Django + React
Stage 1: Core Web Fundamentals (Week 1–2)
• HTML5 & CSS3 (semantic tags, responsive design)
• JavaScript ES6+ (fetch API, promises, async/await)
• Git & GitHub (version control)
• Practice: Build a static portfolio page
Stage 2: Django Backend Basics (Week 3–4)
• Install Django and set up a project
• Understand MVT (Model-View-Template) architecture
• Work with Models (ORM, migrations), Views, Templates
• CRUD operations with Django (without REST yet)
• Practice: Build a basic blog with Django templates
Stage 3: API Core Concepts (Week 5)
• HTTP Methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
• Request/Response cycle
• JSON format
• Status codes
• Headers, Query Params, Path Params
• Use Postman or Insomnia for testing
• Practice: Call a public API using JavaScript fetch
Stage 4: Django REST Framework (DRF) (Week 6–7)
• Install DRF & create a REST API
• Understand Serializers, APIView vs ViewSet, Routers & URLs
• Implement CRUD for a model via API
• Add Authentication (JWT), Permissions & Throttling, Pagination & Filtering
• Explore Swagger / drf-yasg for API docs
• Practice: Convert your blog project into a REST API
Stage 5: React Frontend (Week 8–9)
• React basics: Components, Props & State, Hooks (useState, useEffect)
• Routing with React Router
• Fetching data from an API (fetch or Axios)
• Form handling & validation
• Practice: Create a React app that fetches and displays data from a public API
Stage 6: Connecting Django API with React (Week 10–11)
• Set up CORS (django-cors-headers)
• Make GET and POST requests from React to Django API
• Handle authentication (JWT or session)
• Upload files (images) from React to Django API
• Implement protected routes in React
• Practice: Build a To-Do app with Django API (CRUD) and React frontend
Stage 7: Advanced Full-Stack API Topics (Week 12–13)
• Deployment: Backend on Render / Railway, Frontend on Vercel / Netlify
• Environment variables (for API keys)
• API versioning & documentation
• Error handling and global exception handling
• Testing APIs with DRF + Postman
• Final Project: E-commerce app with Django API and React frontend
Tools & Libraries
• Django + Django REST Framework
• React + Axios
• JWT Authentication
• Postman
• CORS Headers
• Swagger (API docs)
Timeline
• If you spend 2 hours daily, this roadmap takes about 3 months to complete
• After this, you’ll be ready for real-world full-stack jobs
