Building a mock api

[Beatrix]

Hi everyone, beginner here trying to build an api for their project.

I want to build a REST api that contains information on wild plants of the uk.
The database (written in Json would contain information on the plant’s Latin name, common name, edibility, a brief description, which parts are edible, and an image of it).

I want to use this api to then build a website that would be a guide on foraging in the uk.

This would be my first api ever so I want to keep it simple so as to not get too overwhelmed and
I was inspired by this video that seemed simple enough :

Make your own mock API (super simple)

that used the json server to build a very simple mock api that was them deployed to Heroku.

The “problem” is that this is a simple mock api and not a “real one”.
For a real one i’d Have to use django or flask if I want to use python instead of js (since python is the language I am more comfortable with) and I am not user I am at that good just yet as a programmer, since building APIs is not the easy task.

Since I want to use the foraging website i’m Building as a small full stack project to show potential employers , do you think that building a simple mock api with json should suffice for my first project or would employers really want to see a proper fully fledged api from a self taught programmer that would be applying for a junior dev role?

Many thanks for your help!

[haru16]

In my opinion you should learn as much as possible, it doesn’t matter if the project is small or big, you are learning to later make something better.
I started to learn Django only in this week’s too, in the coming weeks I will start a small project about a shop, the important thing in this project is to learn, later I will do something more professional to show and add in my resume