Welcome to the team
You are joining as a Junior Python Developer. Our clients in India, the GCC, the UK and Canada run on systems we build: ERPs, booking apps, LMS platforms, POS systems and SaaS dashboards. This week builds the habits those projects need, not memorised syntax:
- Correctness first. Money in
Decimal, time zones handled, no double bookings. - Thin views, fat services. Business rules live in one place and get tested.
- No Django default admin in production. We build custom, modern dashboards for clients.
- Ship it. Code isn’t done until it is on Git, tested and deployed.
What you will build: BookIt
From Day 3 every lesson adds a piece to one product: BookIt, a booking platform for a service business (car wash, clinic, salon, gym). We have built this pattern for real clients many times.
Customer (Flutter app) → REST API with JWT → Service layer (rules) → PostgreSQL ← Staff dashboard (Django + Tailwind)
The six days
| Day | Morning: concepts | Afternoon: real-world task | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Python core | venv and Git, mutability, comprehensions, closures, decorators, exceptions, files | Daily Sales Report CLI for a retail POS export | sales_report.py + errors.csv |
| 2 · Professional Python | OOP, dataclasses, typing, Enum, Decimal, generators, context managers, logging, requests, pytest | GST Invoice Engine with a full test suite | invoice.py + passing tests |
| 3 · Django foundations | Request lifecycle, layout, split settings, PostgreSQL, custom User, models, constraints, migrations, ORM | BookIt data layer: models, seed command, 8 report queries | Migrations + seed + reports |
| 4 · Web layer and dashboard | URLs, CBVs, templates, forms, auth and roles, service layer, middleware | Staff dashboard with KPIs, search, status workflow, service CRUD | Working dashboard |
| 5 · REST APIs | DRF serializers, viewsets, JWT, permissions, throttling, CORS, OpenAPI, API tests | Mobile API for the Flutter app | Swagger docs + green tests |
| 6 · Production and demo | Prod settings, security checklist, WhiteNoise, Gunicorn, Railway, performance, Git workflow | Deploy BookIt, then demo it to the team at 3:00 PM | Live URL + demo |
A typical day
| 9:30 – 9:45 | Stand-up: what I finished, what I’m doing today, what’s blocking me |
| 9:45 – 11:15 | Concept block 1: the mentor walks through lessons, you type along (no copy-paste) |
| 11:30 – 1:00 | Concept block 2 + quiz questions in pairs |
| 2:00 – 4:30 | Real-world task: work independently, commit small and often |
| 4:30 – 5:15 | Demo and review: 5 minutes each, one mentor comment, one peer comment |
| 5:15 – 5:30 | Push + daily log: three bullets in LOG.md (learned, built, still unclear) |
Ground rules
- The 20-minute rule. Stuck for 20 minutes? Ask. Bring what you tried, the exact error, and what you expected to happen.
- Commit every day. Push before 5:30 PM with clear messages (
feat: add booking model). Mentors review your PR the next morning. - AI tools (Claude Code, Copilot). We use them every day, so you will too. On Days 1–2, write it yourself first, then compare with AI. From Day 3 use AI freely, but you must be able to explain every line in review.
Also post your daily update in the staff portal (Daily updates). It is how your mentor follows your week.