Task queue concept in Flask - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Task Queue Concept with Flask

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Flask web app that processes tasks in the background using a task queue. This helps the app stay responsive while doing work like sending emails or processing data.

🎯 Goal: Create a Flask app with a task queue list. Add tasks to the queue and process them one by one.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Flask app instance

Create a list called task_queue to hold tasks

Add a configuration variable MAX_TASKS to limit queue size

Write a function to add tasks to task_queue if under MAX_TASKS

Write a function to process and remove tasks from task_queue

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Task queues help web apps handle slow or heavy work in the background, keeping the app fast and responsive for users.

💼 Career

Understanding task queues is important for backend developers working with web frameworks like Flask to build scalable and efficient applications.

1

Create Flask app and task queue list

Create a Flask app instance called app and a list called task_queue that starts empty.

Flask

from flask import Flask

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Flask(__name__) to create the app. Create an empty list named task_queue.

2

Add configuration variable for max tasks

Add a configuration variable called MAX_TASKS to app.config and set it to 5.

Flask

from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)
task_queue = []

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.config['MAX_TASKS'] = 5 to set the max tasks allowed in the queue.

3

Write function to add tasks to the queue

Write a function called add_task that takes a task string. It adds task to task_queue only if the length of task_queue is less than app.config['MAX_TASKS'].

Flask

from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)
task_queue = []

app.config['MAX_TASKS'] = 5

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Check the length of task_queue before adding the new task.

4

Write function to process and remove tasks

Write a function called process_task that removes and returns the first task from task_queue if the queue is not empty. If empty, return None.

Flask

from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)
task_queue = []

app.config['MAX_TASKS'] = 5

def add_task(task):
    if len(task_queue) < app.config['MAX_TASKS']:
        task_queue.append(task)

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use pop(0) to remove the first task from the list.