Django is an open source web framework written in Python, designed for quickly developing robust web applications. It was born at a local Kansas newspaper, the Lawrence Journal-World, and released as open source in 2005. It is maintained by the Django Software Foundation.
Its philosophy is "batteries included": out of the box it provides an ORM to work with the database without writing SQL, a URL system, templates, forms, user management and default security protections. Its automatically generated admin interface is one of its best-known strengths.
Django follows a split close to MVC, which it calls MTV (model, template, view). It is often paired with Django REST Framework to build APIs. It is found in SaaS products, content platforms, internal tools and many data projects, thanks to its closeness to the Python ecosystem.
Why it matters when hiring
Django is often chosen by teams that also do data or AI work in Python, which widens the talent pool. In an interview, a good signal is mastery of the ORM (and its performance pitfalls, such as cascading queries), migrations and structuring a large project into apps. A solid Flask or FastAPI developer adapts quickly.