You should create a virtualenv for this project. Run pip and all commands from that virtualenv.
$ docker-compose up -d
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
$ pytest
.......... [100%]
10 passed in 2.03s
If all tests pass, you are ready to participate in the tutorial.
The above assumes you have Docker & docker-compose available to setup services. You don't have to use docker. You could also setup these services natively on your system and change the connection string in app.py.