Sara Iris Garcia - API development for data analysts/scientists with FastApi | PyData Global 2023

FastAPI is one of the most popular Python web frameworks (3rd most used) and is utilized by major companies like Microsoft

REST APIs run over HTTP protocol and serve as an interface between client and server applications without needing a graphical interface

Key benefits of FastAPI:

• Extremely fast performance
• Automatic documentation generation
• Simple to use and test
• Strong community support
• Follows REST standards by default

Core REST API concepts covered:

• Requests - Asking for resources via URLs
• Responses - Content returned from requests
• HTTP methods (GET, POST, etc.)
• Authentication and security
• Database connections

Best practices:

• Don’t connect directly to databases - use API layer
• Secure APIs with authentication/API keys
• Limit API access appropriately
• Keep API keys out of code/databases
• Use proper request/response handling

FastAPI is particularly useful for data scientists/analysts who need to:

• Expose ML models via API
• Request data from external APIs
• Create data access endpoints
• Build secure APIs with minimal code

The framework provides automatic parameter validation, type checking, and interactive documentation with minimal configuration