Assume that $f$ is twice differentiable, i.e the Hessian matrix exists at each point in $D_f$. Then $f$ is convex if and only if $D_f$ is a convex set and its Hessian is positive semi-definite for all $x\in D_f$. For a single-variable function this reduces to $f''(x) \geq 0$. Geometrically this means that $f$ has nonnegative curvature everywhere.