How to Learn Django – A Roadmap for Beginners

Let’s start with what Django is and why you should care to learn more about it. Django is a web development framework that uses Python as a back-end programming language, which means Python will handle all the stuff related to back-end logic and databases(storage). The cool thing about Django is you can work with any database.

Popular startups like Disqus, Instagram, and Pinterest are all built on the Django framework, so why not give it a try and add this valuable skill to your arsenal.

Is Django Hard to Learn?

It is not as hard as you think to learn Django. Just be patient and understand the concepts well. If you want to learn Django, you need to give it some time. It will take some time to get a clear picture of how Django works, and you need some practice to get there.

Once you become comfortable with the concepts, you will be able to build Django projects with ease.

You need to be a little patient while learning and have a break in between your sessions. If you deal with a problem for a long time, get outside and take a break. When you come back to start again, things will be easy.

Don’t be afraid and start counting all the obstacles you face when you start to learn something new. Just give it a fair shot, and we will see how to do it.

I would suggest you not learn Django just for the sake of learning it. Learn it if you want to do something with it. You need to be clear with your “why”. If you want to build web apps using Django at the back-end, you can start learning Django.

Let’s get on the journey and see how to learn Django.

How Much Python Should You Know to Learn Django?

In Django, you are writing all the code in Python, so you need to be good at it.

You should know the fundamentals of Python to understand what’s going on under the hood in Django. You can start with learning the basics like variables, data types, loops, conditional statements, functions, lists, dictionaries, etc. In addition, you can also learn some OOP concepts (Object Oriented Programming) to write clean and efficient code.

That’s all you need to know from Python if you want to build a website with it. You don’t need to be an expert in Python. If the basic programming concepts are clear, you are good to go. You don’t need to wait till you become an expert Python programmer. You can learn advanced things as you go.

How to Start Learning Django?

Different people like different types of content. Some people may prefer reading the documentation and blog posts to learn, and others may prefer learning from YouTube video tutorials or other video courses.

The great advantage of Django is that you will find a lot of tutorials and courses available on this framework. The official documentation of Django is also amazing. You can learn the framework by following the documentation step by step.

You can follow the steps in the documentation to install and run Django on your computer, and after that, you will learn how to build your first app with Django.

I prefer learning by watching a YouTube tutorial series or doing a video course because that is the way that I like. If you are someone who prefers video content, you can check out free tutorials on YouTube channels like Clever Programmer, CodingEntrepreneurs, etc.

Here are the steps to learning Django:

1. Pick your learning material
2. Understand the basic concepts
3. Build one or more projects by following the tutorials
4. Build projects on your own

To become a Django developer, you need to learn the following things.

Basic Features of Django

You can start building some basic projects following the tutorials. While doing that, you will understand the basics of Django like template, static, how models and views work, how to deal with URLs, and go to different pages, etc. Once you build more and more projects, you will be able to master the framework.

CRUD Operations

A web application needs basic functionalities like creating, reading, updating, and deleting objects. These are called CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations. As a Django developer, you should be able to CRUD operations to build web applications. You learn that by building projects like a To-do list app.

Django Admin Panel

One of the main advantages of Django is the inbuilt admin panel it has. You don’t need to write any code to create the admin interface. Django provides it by default, and you can use it to manage the content of your website.

Django allows you to modify the admin panel and create unique dashboards based on your needs. So you reduce your coding effort in creating an admin panel by yourself, but at the same time, customize the admin panel based on your requirements.

Front-end of the Website

You don’t need to go fancy here because you are mainly focusing on the Django framework. However, when it comes to full-stack web development, you should know the fundamentals of front-end languages. You can start with HTML and CSS and learn the basics of JavaScript.

Once you become good at building web applications with front-end languages and Django, you can master a front-end framework like Angular/React/Vue.js.

Build Projects

To learn any new skill, you need to practice. Initially, you can follow some tutorials and build some basic projects. Once you become pretty good at your web development skills, you can try to create your own web applications.

Keep building different projects until you master the framework. At this point, you can also start applying for jobs or freelancing.

If you are a book person, I would recommend one book called Django 3 By Example. This book contains different website projects to build alongside reading. You can use it as a reference to build some web projects.

How Much Time Will It Take to Learn Django?

You might be wondering how much time you need to spend learning Django. If you want to become a decent Django developer, you can gain all the required skills in less than three months.

In this era, there are no problems in finding the learning material. You will find a ton of resources to learn Django. The only is that you will face is laziness. If you can overcome that, you can master Django and become an amazing web developer within a short period of time.

Final Thoughts

Django is a great modern web development framework, and you can do a lot of things with it. I hope this article has helped you get a clear roadmap on how to learn Django.

Now go ahead and learn the framework, build projects, and become a great web developer. Happy coding!