What is Django REST Framework (DRF)?

Django REST Framework (DRF) is the most popular third-party library for building REST APIs with Django. It provides serialization, authentication, permissions, viewsets, routers, and browsable API. Installation: pip install djangorestframework; add "rest_framework" to INSTALLED_APPS. Serializer: converts complex data (querysets, model instances) to Python primitives (serializable to JSON/XML): from rest_framework import serializers class ArticleSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer): author_name = serializers.CharField(source="author.get_full_name", read_only=True) class Meta: model = Article fields = ["id", "title", "content", "author_name", "published_at"] read_only_fields = ["id", "published_at"]. ViewSet: from rest_framework import viewsets, permissions class ArticleViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet): queryset = Article.objects.filter(is_published=True) serializer_class = ArticleSerializer permission_classes = [permissions.IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly] def perform_create(self, serializer): serializer.save(author=self.request.user). Router (auto URL generation): router = DefaultRouter(); router.register("articles", ArticleViewSet); urlpatterns += router.urls. This creates: GET /articles/, POST /articles/, GET /articles/{id}/, PUT/PATCH /articles/{id}/, DELETE /articles/{id}/. Authentication: TokenAuthentication, SessionAuthentication, JWT (via simplejwt). Permissions: IsAuthenticated, IsAdminUser, IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly, custom permissions. Pagination, filtering, throttling — all built-in.