diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8ce0778a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Terraform
+terraform.tfstate
+terraform.tfstate.*
+.terraform/
+
diff --git a/backend/Dockerfile b/backend/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3a4918018
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# Stage 1: Build
+FROM python:3.11-slim AS builder
+
+WORKDIR /app
+
+COPY requirements.txt .
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip \
+    && pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+# Stage 2: Run
+
+FROM python:3.11-slim
+
+RUN useradd -m appuser
+
+WORKDIR /app
+
+
+COPY --from=builder /usr/local/lib/python3.11 /usr/local/lib/python3.11
+COPY --from=builder /usr/local/bin /usr/local/bin
+
+COPY app ./app
+
+USER appuser
+
+EXPOSE 8000
+
+CMD ["uvicorn", "app.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]
+
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index 212f2fc66..aeee8a106 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -2,3 +2,5 @@ fastapi==0.104.1
 uvicorn==0.24.0
 pydantic==2.4.2
 python-dotenv==1.0.0
+pytest==7.4.3
+httpx==0.25.1
diff --git a/backend/tests/__pycache__/test_main.cpython-310-pytest-7.4.3.pyc b/backend/tests/__pycache__/test_main.cpython-310-pytest-7.4.3.pyc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a166f6ba2
Binary files /dev/null and b/backend/tests/__pycache__/test_main.cpython-310-pytest-7.4.3.pyc differ
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_main.py b/backend/tests/test_main.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ee40ffcfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/test_main.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
+from app.main import app
+
+client = TestClient(app)
+
+def test_health_check():
+    response = client.get("/api/health")
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    assert response.json()["status"] == "healthy"
+
+def test_get_message():
+    response = client.get("/api/message")
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    assert "message" in response.json()
+