Testing API endpoints in Django - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Testing API endpoints

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Django API for a bookstore. You want to make sure your API endpoints work correctly by writing tests.

🎯 Goal: Write tests for the API endpoints to check that the responses return the expected status codes and data.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a test client to send requests to the API

Write a test to check the GET request to the book list endpoint

Write a test to check the POST request to add a new book

Verify the response status codes and returned data in tests

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Testing API endpoints ensures your web services work correctly and reliably before users interact with them.

💼 Career

API testing is a key skill for backend developers and QA engineers to maintain quality and prevent bugs in web applications.

1

Set up test data

Create a list called books with two dictionaries representing books. Each dictionary should have 'title' and 'author' keys with these exact values: {'title': 'Django for Beginners', 'author': 'William S. Vincent'} and {'title': 'Two Scoops of Django', 'author': 'Daniel Roy Greenfeld'}.

Django

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a list with two dictionaries exactly as shown.

2

Configure the test client

Import APIClient from rest_framework.test and create a variable called client that is an instance of APIClient().

Django

books = [
    {'title': 'Django for Beginners', 'author': 'William S. Vincent'},
    {'title': 'Two Scoops of Django', 'author': 'Daniel Roy Greenfeld'}
]

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Import APIClient and create client = APIClient().

3

Write a test for GET /books/

Write a function called test_get_books() that uses client.get to request the '/books/' endpoint. Inside the function, assign the response to a variable called response. Then check that response.status_code equals 200 and that response.data equals the books list.

Django

from rest_framework.test import APIClient

books = [
    {'title': 'Django for Beginners', 'author': 'William S. Vincent'},
    {'title': 'Two Scoops of Django', 'author': 'Daniel Roy Greenfeld'}
]

client = APIClient()

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Define test_get_books(), call client.get('/books/'), and assert status code and data.

4

Write a test for POST /books/

Write a function called test_post_book() that uses client.post to send a new book dictionary {'title': 'Effective Django', 'author': 'Brett Slatkin'} to the '/books/' endpoint with format='json'. Assign the response to response. Then check that response.status_code equals 201 and that response.data contains the new book dictionary.

Django

from rest_framework.test import APIClient

books = [
    {'title': 'Django for Beginners', 'author': 'William S. Vincent'},
    {'title': 'Two Scoops of Django', 'author': 'Daniel Roy Greenfeld'}
]

client = APIClient()

def test_get_books():
    response = client.get('/books/')
    assert response.status_code == 200
    assert response.data == books

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Define test_post_book(), post the new book with format='json', and assert status code and data.