diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 60b54fb..cd0bfab 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ __pycache__/
 .Python
 env/
 venv/
+.venv/
 ENV/
 build/
 develop-eggs/
diff --git a/backend/app/core/config.py b/backend/app/core/config.py
index c57c722..8eac399 100644
--- a/backend/app/core/config.py
+++ b/backend/app/core/config.py
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
-from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
+from pathlib import Path
 from typing import List
-import os
+
+from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings, SettingsConfigDict
+
+
+PROJECT_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[3]
+BACKEND_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
 
 
 class Settings(BaseSettings):
@@ -47,9 +52,11 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     UPLOAD_DIR: str = "/app/uploads"
     MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE: int = 10485760  # 10MB
     
-    class Config:
-        env_file = ".env"
-        case_sensitive = True
+    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(
+        env_file=(PROJECT_ROOT / ".env", BACKEND_ROOT / ".env", ".env"),
+        case_sensitive=True,
+        extra="ignore",
+    )
 
 
 settings = Settings()
diff --git a/backend/app/core/database.py b/backend/app/core/database.py
index 2090286..4571f78 100644
--- a/backend/app/core/database.py
+++ b/backend/app/core/database.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 from sqlalchemy import create_engine
-from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
-from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
+from sqlalchemy.orm import declarative_base, sessionmaker
 from .config import settings
 
 engine = create_engine(
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index 671bf43..aa03d8b 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ pydantic-settings==2.6.1
 python-multipart==0.0.6
 
 # Database
-sqlalchemy==2.0.23
+sqlalchemy==2.0.49
 pymysql==1.1.0
 cryptography==41.0.7
 alembic==1.13.0