Backend Development Glossary
Clear, practical definitions of backend development concepts, tools, and technologies. Written by an engineer who uses them daily.
Frameworks
FastAPI
FastAPI is a modern, high-performance Python web framework for building APIs. It leverages Python type hints for automatic validation, serialization, and interactive documentation generation.
Read definition → // FrameworksDjango
Django is a high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. It follows the batteries-included philosophy with built-in ORM, admin panel, and authentication.
Read definition →Architecture
REST API
A REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) is an architectural style for designing networked applications that uses HTTP methods to perform CRUD operations on resources.
Read definition → // ArchitectureGraphQL
GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for executing those queries. It allows clients to request exactly the data they need, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching common in REST APIs.
Read definition → // ArchitectureMicroservices
Microservices is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of small, independent services, each running its own process and communicating via APIs or messaging.
Read definition → // ArchitectureASGI
ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) is a specification for Python asynchronous web servers and applications. It extends WSGI to support async, WebSockets, and long-lived connections.
Read definition → // ArchitectureAPI Gateway
An API Gateway is a server that acts as the single entry point for all API requests, handling routing, authentication, rate limiting, and load balancing across backend services.
Read definition →DevOps
Docker
Docker is a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications inside lightweight, portable containers. It packages code with its dependencies to ensure consistent behavior across environments.
Read definition → // DevOpsKubernetes
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of machines.
Read definition → // DevOpsCI/CD
CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) is a software development practice that automates code integration, testing, and deployment, enabling teams to deliver changes frequently and reliably.
Read definition →Libraries
Databases
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is a powerful, open-source relational database management system known for its reliability, advanced features, extensibility, and strict SQL compliance.
Read definition → // DatabasesRedis
Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, message broker, and streaming engine. It supports strings, hashes, lists, sets, and sorted sets with sub-millisecond latency.
Read definition →Security
Concepts
ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)
An ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) is a programming technique that lets you interact with a relational database using objects in your programming language instead of writing raw SQL queries.
Read definition → // ConceptsAsync Programming
Async (asynchronous) programming in Python enables concurrent execution of I/O-bound tasks using async/await syntax, allowing a single thread to handle thousands of operations simultaneously.
Read definition → // ConceptsMiddleware
Middleware is software that sits between the server and your application logic, processing requests and responses. It handles cross-cutting concerns like authentication, logging, CORS, and error handling.
Read definition →Need expert backend development?
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