In this blog post, the author guides readers through building a server-side web application using Clojure and the Duct framework, which offers a modular approach to streamline the development process. The tutorial assumes some familiarity with Clojure and requires the installation of Java JDK, Leiningen, and Git. The author demonstrates how to set up a basic web application using Duct's Leiningen templates, enabling users to create and list films, with SQLite as the initial database engine. The step-by-step instructions cover project initialization, application configuration, and the establishment of continuous integration using GitHub and CircleCI. The guide also explains how to handle HTTP requests and responses, implement database interactions via a Clojure protocol, and manage database migrations with Ragtime. By the end of the tutorial, readers have developed a functional application capable of adding and listing films, with the promise of future posts detailing how to add a production database and deploy the app using Docker and AWS.