Task API (FastAPI CRUD)

A lightweight, in-memory CRUD API for managing tasks, built using Python and FastAPI. This project was built step-by-step to demonstrate core backend mechanics, HTTP methods, status codes, and input validation without relying on an external database.

How to Run

Start the local development server with:

uvicorn main:app --reload

The server will be available at http://localhost:8000.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Action	Expected Status Codes
GET	/	API Information	200
GET	/health	Health Check	200
GET	/tasks	List all tasks	200
GET	/tasks/{task_id}	Get a specific task	200, 404
POST	/tasks	Create a new task	201, 400
PUT	/tasks/{task_id}	Update an existing task	200, 400, 404
DELETE	/tasks/{task_id}	Delete a task	204, 404

Step-by-Step Implementation

Stage 0 & 1: Server Setup and Root Endpoints

• Initialized the FastAPI application.
• Created the root GET / endpoint returning basic API metadata.
• Created the GET /health endpoint for server monitoring.

Stage 2: Read (List and Single Task)

• Established an in-memory Python list (Task_DB) acting as the database.
• Implemented GET /tasks to return the complete array of tasks.
• Implemented GET /tasks/{task_id} to return a specific task, utilizing a 404 Not Found exception if the ID does not exist.

Stage 3: Create (POST a new task)

• Implemented POST /tasks accepting a JSON body mapped to a Pydantic TaskCreate model.
• Added validation to ensure the title cannot be empty, triggering a custom 400 Bad Request global exception handler.
• Automatically generates an incremented ID and defaults the done status to false.

Example POST Request via curl:

curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8000/tasks -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"title\":\"Test task from terminal\"}"

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
date: Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:32:22 GMT
server: uvicorn
content-length: 71
content-type: application/json

{"status":"New Task Added Successfully","Task":{"id":2,"title":"Test task from terminal","done":false}}

Stage 4: Update & Delete

• Implemented PUT /tasks/{task_id} using a TaskUpdate model to allow partial updates of title or done fields. Includes 400 validation for empty titles and 404 for missing IDs.
• Implemented DELETE /tasks/{task_id} removing the task dictionary from the list using .remove() and returning a 204 No Content status.
• The Mortality Experiment: Confirmed that because data is stored in memory, restarting the server (via Uvicorn's reload functionality) wipes out all dynamically created tasks and resets to the original hardcoded state.

Stage 5: Swagger UI

• Utilized FastAPI's built-in interactive documentation available at /docs.
• Tested the full CRUD cycle visually without manual curl formatting.

Swagger Documentation Screenshots:



Stage 6: Publish to GitHub

• Initialized the local Git repository.
• Documented the API requirements, behavior, and testing steps in this README.
• Pushed all iterative commits to the remote repository.