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Module 12 / Project 03 — Production Checklist

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— This project — — Flashcards — —

Focus

  • HTTPS and security headers
  • Monitoring and alerting
  • Structured logging
  • Backup strategy
  • Post-deploy verification

Why this project exists

Deploying code is only half the battle. A production app needs monitoring, logging, backups, and security hardening. This project is a comprehensive checklist and reference for everything you need before going live.

The production checklist

Security

  • HTTPS enforced (Railway/Render handle this automatically)
  • CORS configured to allow only your frontend domain
  • No secrets in source code (use environment variables)
  • API rate limiting in place
  • Input validation on all endpoints (Pydantic handles this)
  • SQL injection prevented (parameterized queries / ORM)
  • Authentication on sensitive endpoints

Monitoring

  • Health check endpoint (/health) returns database status
  • Uptime monitoring set up (UptimeRobot, Better Uptime — free tiers)
  • Error tracking configured (Sentry — free tier for small projects)
  • Response time monitoring

Logging

  • Structured logging (JSON format) instead of print()
  • Log levels used correctly (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR)
  • Request/response logging for debugging
  • No sensitive data in logs (passwords, tokens, etc.)

Database

  • Automated backups enabled (Railway/Render do this)
  • Connection pooling configured
  • Migrations tested before deploy
  • Rollback plan documented

Deployment

  • CI/CD pipeline runs tests before deploy
  • Environment variables documented (.env.example)
  • Zero-downtime deploys (Railway handles this)
  • Rollback procedure tested

Project files

03-production-checklist/
├── app.py              # Production-hardened FastAPI app
├── config.py           # Configuration from environment
├── logging_config.py   # Structured logging setup
├── requirements.txt
├── .env.example
└── notes.md

Run

cd projects/modules/12-cloud-deploy/03-production-checklist
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Alter it

  1. Add Sentry integration for error tracking (sign up for free at sentry.io).
  2. Add a /metrics endpoint that returns request counts and average response times.
  3. Set up UptimeRobot to ping your /health endpoint every 5 minutes.

Break it

  1. Remove CORS middleware and try to call the API from a different domain.
  2. Remove rate limiting and send 1000 requests in 1 second.
  3. Log a user's password by accident. Find it in the logs.

Fix it

  1. Add CORS middleware with strict origin rules.
  2. Add rate limiting middleware or use a reverse proxy.
  3. Add a log sanitizer that redacts sensitive fields.

Explain it

  1. Why is HTTPS important and how does it work at a high level?
  2. What is the difference between monitoring and logging?
  3. Why should you use structured (JSON) logging instead of plain text?
  4. What is a connection pool and why does it matter for databases?

Mastery check

You can move on when you can: - deploy a production-hardened FastAPI app, - set up monitoring and error tracking, - configure structured logging, - explain each item on the production checklist.

Next

Go back to Module index or return to the Modules overview.