diff --git a/backend/.python-version b/backend/.python-version
index 5a7eaff..2b0dbcf 100644
--- a/backend/.python-version
+++ b/backend/.python-version
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-3.8.10
+3.11.0
 
diff --git a/backend/Dockerfile b/backend/Dockerfile
index 42b5d66..0ef8151 100644
--- a/backend/Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM ubuntu:18.04
+FROM python:3.11-slim
 
 # Set environment variables
 ENV DATABASE_URL="postgresql://projecthub:password123@db:5432/projecthub"
@@ -10,12 +10,15 @@ EXPOSE 5000 8000 9000
 
 # Install system dependencies
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
-    python3 \
-    python3-pip \
     postgresql-client \
     libpq-dev \
-    netcat \
+    netcat-openbsd \
     dos2unix \
+    gcc \
+    g++ \
+    libxml2-dev \
+    libxslt1-dev \
+    zlib1g-dev \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # Set working directory
@@ -25,8 +28,8 @@ WORKDIR /app
 COPY requirements.txt .
 
 # Upgrade pip and install Python dependencies
-RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel && \
-    pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+RUN pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel && \
+    pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
 
 # Copy application code
 COPY . .
diff --git a/backend/docker-entrypoint.sh b/backend/docker-entrypoint.sh
index 2e3970d..b57e970 100755
--- a/backend/docker-entrypoint.sh
+++ b/backend/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ attempt=0
 
 while [ $attempt -lt $max_attempts ]; do
     # Try connecting with netcat or python
-    if nc -z $DB_HOST 5432 2>/dev/null || python3 -c "import socket; socket.create_connection(('$DB_HOST', 5432), timeout=2)" 2>/dev/null; then
+    if nc -z $DB_HOST 5432 2>/dev/null || python -c "import socket; socket.create_connection(('$DB_HOST', 5432), timeout=2)" 2>/dev/null; then
         echo "PostgreSQL is ready on $DB_HOST!"
         break
     fi
@@ -26,5 +26,5 @@ if [ $attempt -eq $max_attempts ]; then
 fi
 
 # Start the application
-exec python3 app.py
+exec python app.py
 
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index d0c1582..64204a4 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -1,16 +1,17 @@
 Flask==1.1.4
 Flask-SQLAlchemy==2.3.2
 SQLAlchemy==1.4.0
-Flask-CORS==3.0.7
+Flask-CORS==4.0.0
 Flask-JWT-Extended==3.13.1
-psycopg2-binary==2.7.4
-PyJWT==1.6.4
+psycopg2-binary==2.9.9
+PyJWT==2.8.0
 Werkzeug==1.0.1
 python-dotenv==0.10.0
 requests==2.20.0
-lxml==4.2.5
-Pillow==5.2.0
-python-magic==0.4.15
-PyYAML==3.13
+lxml==4.9.3
+Pillow==10.0.0
+python-magic==0.4.27
+PyYAML==6.0.1
 Jinja2==2.11.3
+MarkupSafe==2.0.1