ALX Backend Python

A comprehensive collection of advanced Python backend development projects focused on generators, decorators, async operations, testing, and Django middleware.

Overview

This repository contains coursework from the ALX Backend Python specialization, covering essential topics for building robust backend systems. Each directory represents a distinct learning module with practical implementations and best practices.

Projects

python-generators-0x00 - Generators & Data Streaming

Master Python generators for memory-efficient data processing.

Key Topics:

• Generator functions with yield
• Batch processing and lazy loading
• Streaming data from databases
• Pagination and lazy evaluation
• Aggregate computations on large datasets

Files:

• 0-stream_users.py - Basic user streaming from database
• 1-batch_processing.py - Process users in configurable batches
• 2-lazy_paginate.py - Lazy pagination with generators
• 4-stream_ages.py - Stream and calculate average ages
• seed. py - Database connection and setup utilities

python-decorators-0x01 - Decorators & Database Operations

Learn decorators for clean, reusable database operation patterns.

Key Topics:

• Function decorators and functools. wraps
• Database connection management
• Query logging and caching
• Transaction handling and rollback
• Retry logic with exponential backoff

Files:

• 0-log_queries.py - Decorator for logging SQL queries
• 1-with_db_connection.py - Automatic connection handling
• 2-transactional. py - Transaction support with rollback
• 3-retry_on_failure.py - Automatic retry mechanism
• 4-cache_query.py - Query result caching

python-context-async-perations-0x02 - Async Operations & Context Managers

Build asynchronous and context-aware Python applications.

0x03-Unittests_and_integration_tests - Testing Best Practices

Write comprehensive unit and integration tests with mocking.

Key Topics:

• Unit testing with unittest
• Mocking external dependencies with unittest.mock
• Parameterized testing for multiple inputs
• Integration testing patterns
• Fixtures and side effects

Files:

• utils.py - Helper functions: access_nested_map, get_json, memoize
• client.py - GithubOrgClient implementation
• test_utils.py - Unit tests with parameterization
• test_client.py - Integration and unit tests
• fixtures.py - Test fixtures

Django-Middleware-0x03 - Django Middleware Development

Develop custom middleware for Django applications.

messaging_app - Full-Stack Messaging Application

A complete messaging application implementation.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3.7+
• Databases: MySQL, SQLite
• Frameworks: Django
• Testing: unittest, parameterized
• Tools: functools, async/await

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7 or higher
• pip package manager
• MySQL server (for generator projects)

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/lameckirungu/alx-backend-python. git
cd alx-backend-python

# Install dependencies
pip3 install parameterized pycodestyle==2.5 mysql-connector-python