FastAPI is a modern, high-performance Python web framework for building APIs. It's built on Starlette (for async) and Pydantic (for data validation), and automatically generates OpenAPI documentation.
Why FastAPI?
Feature
FastAPI
Flask
Django
Async support
Native
Extension
3.1+
Auto docs
Yes (OpenAPI)
Third-party
DRF
Data validation
Pydantic built-in
Manual
DRF serializers
Performance
Node.js/Go-level
WSGI
WSGI
Type hints
Required
Optional
Optional
Key Features
High performance — on par with Node.js and Go
Fast to code — 200-300% faster development
Fewer bugs — ~40% fewer human-induced errors
Automatic interactive API docs (Swagger + ReDoc)
Standards-based — OpenAPI + JSON Schema
✏️ Exercise: Research a FastAPI success story (e.g., Microsoft, Uber, Netflix). Write a paragraph on why they chose FastAPI.