diff --git a/dockerfiles/edx-notes-api.Dockerfile b/dockerfiles/edx-notes-api.Dockerfile
index 4d570df..d42b26b 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/edx-notes-api.Dockerfile
+++ b/dockerfiles/edx-notes-api.Dockerfile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ FROM ubuntu:focal AS app
 # language-pack-en locales; ubuntu locale support so that system utilities have a consistent
 # language and time zone.
 
-# python3.8-dev; to install python 3.8
+# python3.12-dev; to install python 3.12
 # python3-venv; installs venv module required to create virtual environments
 
 # libssl-dev; # mysqlclient wont install without this.
@@ -17,46 +17,63 @@ FROM ubuntu:focal AS app
 
 # If you add a package here please include a comment above describing what it is used for
 
+# ENV variables for Python 3.12 support
+ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.12
+ENV TZ=UTC
+ENV TERM=xterm-256color
+ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+
+# software-properties-common is needed to setup Python 3.12 env
 RUN apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -y software-properties-common && \
-    apt-add-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa && \
-    apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -qy && \
-    apt-get install \
+  apt-get install -y software-properties-common && \
+  apt-add-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
+
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get -qy install --no-install-recommends \
+    build-essential \
     language-pack-en \
     locales \
-    git \
-    libmysqlclient-dev \
     pkg-config \
     libssl-dev \
-    build-essential \
-    python3.8-dev \
-    python3.8-distutils \
-    python3-virtualenv -qy && \
+    libffi-dev \
+    libsqlite3-dev \
+    libmysqlclient-dev \
+    git \
+    curl \
+    python3-pip \
+    python${PYTHON_VERSION} \
+    python${PYTHON_VERSION}-dev \
+    python${PYTHON_VERSION}-distutils && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
+RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone
+RUN ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
 
 RUN locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
 ENV LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 ENV LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 ENV LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
 
+# need to use virtualenv pypi package with Python 3.12
+RUN curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python${PYTHON_VERSION}
+RUN pip install virtualenv
 
 # ENV variables lifetime is bound to the container whereas ARGS variables lifetime is bound to the image building process only
 # Also ARGS provide us an option of compatibility of Path structure for Tutor and other OpenedX installations
-ARG COMMON_CFG_DIR "/edx/etc"
+ARG COMMON_CFG_DIR="/edx/etc"
 ARG COMMON_APP_DIR="/edx/app"
+ARG NOTES_APP_DIR="${COMMON_APP_DIR}/notes"
 ARG NOTES_VENV_DIR="${COMMON_APP_DIR}/venvs/notes"
 
+ENV NOTES_APP_DIR=${NOTES_APP_DIR}
 ENV PATH="$NOTES_VENV_DIR/bin:$PATH"
 
-RUN useradd -m --shell /bin/false app
+WORKDIR ${NOTES_APP_DIR}
 
-# Install curl
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl
+RUN useradd -m --shell /bin/false app
 
 RUN mkdir -p requirements
 
-RUN virtualenv -p python3.8 --always-copy ${NOTES_VENV_DIR}
+RUN virtualenv -p python${PYTHON_VERSION} --always-copy ${NOTES_VENV_DIR}
 
 RUN pip install --upgrade pip setuptools
 
@@ -66,6 +83,8 @@ RUN curl -L -o requirements/pip.txt https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openedx/ed
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements/base.txt
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements/pip.txt
 
+RUN curl -L https://github.com/openedx/edx-notes-api/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1
+
 RUN mkdir -p /edx/var/log
 
 EXPOSE 8120
@@ -77,17 +96,13 @@ ENV DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="notesserver.settings.devstack"
 # Backwards compatibility with devstack
 RUN touch "${COMMON_APP_DIR}/edx_notes_api_env"
 
-RUN curl -L https://github.com/openedx/edx-notes-api/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1
-
 CMD while true; do python ./manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8120; sleep 2; done
 
 FROM app AS production
 
-ENV EDXNOTES_CONFIG_ROOT=/edx/etc
+ENV EDXNOTES_CONFIG_ROOT="/edx/etc"
 ENV DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="notesserver.settings.yaml_config"
 
-RUN curl -L https://github.com/openedx/edx-notes-api/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1
-
 USER app
 
 # Gunicorn 19 does not log to stdout or stderr by default. Once we are past gunicorn 19, the logging to STDOUT need not be specified.