Django Debug Toolbar reveals query counts, cache hits, and template rendering time. I add it only in development settings. The toolbar shows all SQL queries which helps identify N+1 problems. I use the profiler panel to find slow code. The cache panel

API versioning via middleware provides clean URL routing. I extract version from Accept header or URL prefix and set it on the request object. Views can check request.api_version to return appropriate responses. For breaking changes, I maintain separa

JSONField stores structured data without creating separate tables. I use it for settings, metadata, or varying attributes. Django provides database-level JSON operations via lookups like __contains, __has_key. For PostgreSQL, I get native JSON operato

Django stores datetimes as UTC in the database when USE_TZ=True. I use timezone.now() instead of datetime.now() to get aware datetimes. The timezone.localtime() converts UTC to user's timezone for display. For user input, I use timezone.make_aware() t

I organize settings into base, development, and production modules. The base contains common settings, while dev and prod override specific values. I use environment variables for secrets via os.environ.get() or python-decouple. The django-environ pac

Throttling prevents API abuse by limiting request rates. DRF provides AnonRateThrottle for anonymous users and UserRateThrottle for authenticated users. I configure rates in settings like 'user': '100/hour'. For custom logic, I subclass BaseThrottle a

Aggregation performs database-level calculations efficiently. I use aggregate() for single results across entire queryset (like average or total) and annotate() to add calculated fields to each object. Common aggregates include Count, Sum, Avg, Min, a

Properties let me add computed attributes to models without storing them in the database. I use @property for simple calculations like full name or age. For expensive computations, I consider caching the result in a field and updating it via signals o

Adding unique request IDs helps trace logs across distributed systems. I generate a UUID for each request and attach it to both the request object and response headers. I also add it to the logging context so all log entries for that request include t

Database routers direct queries to specific databases. I implement db_for_read(), db_for_write(), allow_relation(), and allow_migrate() methods. This enables read replicas, sharding by model, or separating analytics data. The router checks model label

Context processors add variables to every template context automatically. I create a function that takes request and returns a dict. This is perfect for site-wide settings like site name, current year, or user preferences. I add my processor to TEMPLA

The Django admin is powerful when customized. I set list_display for column layout, list_filter and search_fields for finding records. Using readonly_fields, I prevent editing certain fields. The fieldsets organize the form layout. For computed values