FastAPI Interview Questions & Answers (Full Set)
Q: What is FastAPI? How does it differ from frameworks like Flask and Django?
A: FastAPI is a modern, high-performance web framework for building APIs with Python 3.7+ based
on standard type hints. It is faster than Flask and Django, supports asynchronous programming
(async/await), and automatically generates validation and interactive API docs.
Q: What are the main features of FastAPI?
A: Fast to run, automatic OpenAPI & JSON Schema generation, data validation with Pydantic,
dependency injection system, asynchronous programming support, and easy database integration.
Q: How do you install FastAPI and run a simple application?
A: Install using 'pip install fastapi uvicorn'. Define a FastAPI instance and routes, then run with
'uvicorn main:app --reload'.
Q: How do you define a route/endpoint in FastAPI?
A: Use route decorators like @app.get(), @app.post() above your function definitions.
Q: Explain how automatic OpenAPI (Swagger) docs are generated.
A: FastAPI uses the OpenAPI standard to automatically generate interactive documentation at
'/docs' (Swagger UI) and '/redoc' (Redoc).
Q: How do you handle path and query parameters?
A: By including them in function parameters - path parameters directly and query parameters as
optional with default values.
Q: How to handle form data and file uploads?
A: Use 'Form' and 'UploadFile' from fastapi, passing them as dependencies in your endpoint
functions.
Q: How does FastAPI handle request validation?
A: It uses Pydantic models and Python type hints to perform automatic request validation and raise
errors if inputs are invalid.
Q: What are Pydantic models? How are they used in FastAPI?
A: Pydantic models are Python classes used for data validation and serialization. In FastAPI, they're
used to define request and response schemas.
Q: How to handle JSON request bodies?
A: Define a Pydantic model and use it as a parameter in your route function.
Q: How to customize response status codes?
A: Set the 'status_code' parameter in your route decorator.
Q: What is ResponseModel and how to use it?
A: A parameter to route decorators to specify the response schema using a Pydantic model.
Q: How to send custom response headers?
A: Use 'JSONResponse' from fastapi.responses and pass custom headers.
Q: How to implement response caching?
A: FastAPI doesn't have built-in caching; use third-party libraries like 'FastAPI-Caching' or external
tools like Redis.
Q: Explain FastAPI's dependency injection.
A: FastAPI uses 'Depends' to declare dependencies which can be automatically resolved and
injected into your routes.
Q: How to share common logic (like DB connections)?
A: Define a dependency function that yields the connection, and inject it into your routes using
'Depends'.
Q: How to implement JWT authentication?
A: Use libraries like 'python-jose' or 'fastapi-jwt-auth' to encode, decode tokens and secure
endpoints via dependency injection.
Q: What are security schemes in FastAPI?
A: Security schemes like OAuth2PasswordBearer are utilities that help define and secure
authentication flows.
Q: How to secure routes?
A: Use dependencies like 'Depends(oauth2_scheme)' in your routes to restrict access.
Q: What is middleware?
A: Middleware is a function that runs before and/or after each request to handle cross-cutting
concerns.
Q: Use case for middleware?
A: Logging, CORS, performance monitoring, error handling.
Q: How does FastAPI support async?
A: Built on Starlette, FastAPI supports async/await for non-blocking asynchronous programming.
Q: Difference between async def and def?
A: 'async def' is non-blocking, 'def' is blocking.
Q: Can you mix them?
A: Yes, FastAPI supports both async and regular functions.
Q: How to test a FastAPI app?
A: Use 'TestClient' from fastapi.testclient for integration tests.
Q: What is TestClient?
A: A testing utility that wraps your FastAPI app and lets you test it like an HTTP client.
Q: How to connect a database?
A: Use libraries like SQLAlchemy to manage ORM-based database connections.
Q: Explain SQLAlchemy integration.
A: Create an engine, session, and models. Manage DB sessions via dependency injection.
Q: How to implement database sessions as dependency?
A: Define a 'get_db' function that yields a session and inject it using 'Depends'.
Q: How to deploy a FastAPI app?
A: Use Uvicorn or Gunicorn with Uvicorn workers behind a reverse proxy like Nginx or deploy in
Docker.
Q: Difference between Uvicorn and Gunicorn?
A: Uvicorn is an ASGI server, Gunicorn is a WSGI server. Use Uvicorn workers inside Gunicorn for
async apps.
Q: How to serve behind Nginx?
A: Proxy requests from Nginx to your Uvicorn server via reverse proxy configuration.
Q: Background tasks example?
A: Use 'BackgroundTasks' from fastapi and add tasks with 'add_task' method.
Q: WebSockets example?
A: Use '@app.websocket' decorator, accept, send and close WebSocket connections
asynchronously.
Q: How to handle CORS?
A: Add 'CORSMiddleware' to your FastAPI app with allowed origins, methods, and headers.
Q: How does FastAPI handle exception handling?
A: Use 'HTTPException' or add custom exception handlers using 'add_exception_handler'.
Q: How would you implement pagination?
A: Use query parameters like 'limit' and 'offset' to control the number of returned results.
