Internship Management Platform — Backend

Django REST Framework API with JWT authentication, role-based access control, and PostgreSQL.

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Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Django 4.2 + DRF 3.15
Database	PostgreSQL (psycopg2)
Auth	SimpleJWT (Bearer tokens)
Env config	django-environ
Prod server	Gunicorn + WhiteNoise

---

Project Structure

internship_platform/
├── config/
│   ├── settings/
│   │   ├── base.py          # Shared settings
│   │   ├── dev.py           # Development overrides
│   │   └── prod.py          # Production hardening
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py
├── apps/
│   ├── users/               # Custom user model, JWT auth
│   │   ├── models.py
│   │   ├── serializers.py
│   │   ├── views.py
│   │   ├── urls.py
│   │   ├── permissions.py
│   │   ├── services.py
│   │   ├── exceptions.py
│   │   └── admin.py
│   ├── internships/         # Internship postings (company-owned)
│   │   ├── models.py
│   │   ├── serializers.py
│   │   ├── views.py
│   │   ├── urls.py
│   │   ├── permissions.py
│   │   └── admin.py
│   └── applications/        # Student applications
│       ├── models.py
│       ├── serializers.py
│       ├── views.py
│       ├── urls.py
│       ├── permissions.py
│       └── admin.py
├── requirements.txt
├── manage.py
└── .env.example

---

Quick Start

# 1. Clone and enter the project
cd internship_platform

# 2. Create a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate        # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# 3. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4. Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — set SECRET_KEY, DATABASE_URL, etc.

# 5. Create PostgreSQL database
createdb internship_db

# 6. Run migrations
python manage.py migrate

# 7. Create a superuser
python manage.py createsuperuser

# 8. Run development server
python manage.py runserver

---

API Reference

All endpoints are prefixed with /api/. Protected endpoints require: Authorization: Bearer <access_token>

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Description
POST	/api/auth/register/	Public	Register student or company account
POST	/api/auth/login/	Public	Obtain JWT token pair
GET	/api/auth/profile/	Required	Get own profile
PUT	/api/auth/profile/	Required	Update own profile

Register — Student

POST /api/auth/register/
{
  "email": "alice@example.com",
  "full_name": "Alice Smith",
  "role": "student",
  "password": "Str0ngP@ss!",
  "confirm_password": "Str0ngP@ss!",
  "university": "MIT",
  "graduation_year": 2026
}

Register — Company

POST /api/auth/register/
{
  "email": "hr@acme.com",
  "full_name": "ACME Recruiter",
  "role": "company",
  "password": "Str0ngP@ss!",
  "confirm_password": "Str0ngP@ss!",
  "company_name": "Acme Corp",
  "company_website": "https://acme.com"
}

Login

POST /api/auth/login/
{
  "email": "alice@example.com",
  "password": "Str0ngP@ss!"
}

Response:

{
  "user": { "id": 1, "email": "...", "role": "student", ... },
  "tokens": {
    "access": "<jwt_access_token>",
    "refresh": "<jwt_refresh_token>"
  }
}

---

Internships

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Role	Description
GET	/api/internships/	Required	Any	List internships
POST	/api/internships/	Required	Company	Create internship
GET	/api/internships/{id}/	Required	Any	Get detail
PUT	/api/internships/{id}/	Required	Owner company	Update
DELETE	/api/internships/{id}/	Required	Owner company	Delete

Create Internship

POST /api/internships/
Authorization: Bearer <company_token>

{
  "title": "Backend Engineering Intern",
  "description": "Work on our core API platform...",
  "location": "San Francisco, CA",
  "is_remote": true,
  "stipend": 3000.00,
  "skills_required": "Python, Django, PostgreSQL",
  "duration_weeks": 12,
  "application_deadline": "2026-08-01",
  "status": "open"
}

---

Applications

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Role	Description
GET	/api/applications/	Required	Any	List own applications
POST	/api/applications/	Required	Student	Apply for internship

Apply

POST /api/applications/
Authorization: Bearer <student_token>

{
  "internship_id": 5,
  "cover_letter": "I'm excited about this opportunity because..."
}

---

Error Format

All errors follow a consistent shape:

{
  "errors": {
    "field_name": ["Error message"],
    "detail": "Non-field error message"
  }
}

---

Key Design Decisions

• Custom User Model — email as USERNAME_FIELD; role-based with is_student / is_company properties.
• APIView-based — explicit get_permissions() per method; no implicit magic from ViewSets.
• Service layer (services.py) — JWT generation isolated from views.
• Duplicate application prevention — dual-layer: serializer-level check (clear error message) + DB UniqueConstraint (race condition guard).
• select_related / prefetch_related — used consistently to prevent N+1 queries.
• Settings split — base / dev / prod; prod enables HSTS, HTTPS redirect, secure cookies.
• Custom exception handler — normalises all DRF error responses to {"errors": {...}}.

---

Running in Production

DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.prod \
gunicorn config.wsgi:application \
  --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 \
  --workers 4 \
  --timeout 120