```Python hl_lines="1"
{!../../../docs_src/first_steps/tutorial001.py!}
```

`FastAPI` is a Python class that provides all the functionality for your API.

!!! note "Technical Details"
    `FastAPI` is a class that inherits directly from `Starlette`.

    You can use all the <a href="https://www.starlette.io/" class="external-link" target="_blank">Starlette</a> functionality with `FastAPI` too.

### Step 2: create a `FastAPI` "instance"

        * This avoids/fixes a potential security issue: as the returned object is passed directly to Pydantic, if the returned object was a subclass of the `response_model` (e.g. you return a `UserInDB` that inherits from `User` but contains extra fields, like `hashed_password`, and `User` is used in the `response_model`), it would still pass the validation (because `UserInDB` is a subclass of `User`) and the object would be returned as-is, including the `hashed_password`....

INHERIT: ../en/mkdocs.maybe-insiders.yml
site_name: FastAPI
site_description: FastAPI framework, high performance, easy to learn, fast to code, ready for production
site_url: https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/
theme:
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  custom_dir: ../en/overrides
  palette:
  - media: '(prefers-color-scheme: light)'
    scheme: default
    primary: teal
    accent: amber
    toggle:
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      name: Switch to dark mode