Interview questions for Laravel

1) What is Laravel?

Laravel is an open-source widely used PHP framework. The platform was intended for the development of web application by using MVC architectural pattern. Laravel is released under the MIT license.
Therefore, its source code is hosted on GitHub. It is a reliable PHP framework as it follows expressive and accurate language rules.

2) What are the main features of Laravel?

Some of the main features of Laravel are:
o Eloquent ORM
o Query builder
o Reverse Routing
o Restful Controllers
o Migrations
o Database Seeding
o Unit Testing
o Homestead

3. Define composer?

It is an application-level package manager for PHP. It provides a standard format for managing PHP software dependencies and libraries.

4. What do you understand by Eloquent ORM?

Eloquent ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) is one of the main features of the Laravel framework. It may be defined as an advanced PHP implementation of the active record pattern.
Active record pattern is an architectural pattern which is found in software. It is responsible for keeping in-memory object data in relational databases
Eloquent ORM is also responsible for providing the internal methods at the same time when enforcing constraints on the relationship between database objects. Eloquent ORM represents database tables as classes, with their object instances tied to single table rows, while following the active record pattern.

5. What is HTTP middleware?

HTTP middleware is a technique for filtering HTTP requests. Laravel includes a middleware that checks whether application user is authenticated or not.

6. What is Query Builder in Laravel?

Laravel’s Query Builder provides more direct access to the database, alternative to the Eloquent ORM. It doesn’t require SQL queries to be written directly. Instead, it offers a set of classes and methods which are capable of building queries programmatically. It also allows specific caching of the results of the executed queries.

7. Name aggregates methods of query builder?

Aggregates methods of query builder are: 1) max(), 2) min(), 3) sum(), 4) avg(), and 5) count().

8. How will you describe Bundles in Laravel?

In Laravel, Bundles are also known as Packages. Packages are the primary way to add more functionality to Laravel. Packages can be anything, from a great way to work with dates like Carbon, or an entire BDD testing framework likeBehat. Laravel also provides support for creating custom packages.
There are different types of packages. Some of them are stand-alone packages. This means they can work with any PHP framework. The frameworks like Carbon and Behat are examples of stand-alone packages. Other packages are intended for use with Laravel. These packages may contain routes, controllers, views, and configurations which are mainly designed to enhance a Laravel application

9. What is a Route?

A route is basically an endpoint specified by a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). It acts as a pointer in Laravel application.
Most commonly, a route simply points to a method on a controller and also dictates which HTTP methods are able to hit that URI.

10. What is a composer, and how can we install Laravel by the composer?

A composer is a dependency manager in PHP. It manages the dependencies which are required for a project. It means that the composer will pull in all the necessary libraries, dependencies, and manage all at a single place.
Laravel Installation Steps:
o If you don’t have a composer on a system, download composer from https://getcomposer.org/download/
o Open command prompt
o Go to htdocs folder
o Run the below command under C:\xampp\htdocs>

11. Why use Route?

Routes are stored inside files under the /routes folder inside the project’s root directory. By default, there are a few different files corresponding to the different “sides” of the application (“sides” comes from the hexagonal architecture methodology).

12. Does Laravel support caching?

Yes, Laravel provides support for popular caching backends like Memcached and Redis.
By default, Laravel is configured to use file cache driver, which is used to store the serialized or cached objects in the file system. For huge projects, it is suggested to use Memcached or Redis.

13. What do you mean by bundles?

In Laravel, bundles are referred to as packages. These packages are used to increase the functionality of Laravel. A package can have views, configuration, migrations, routes and tasks.

14. How will you explain middleware in Laravel?

As the name suggests, middleware works as a middleman between request and response. Middleware is a form of HTTP requests filtering mechanism. For example, Laravel consists of middleware which verifies whether the user of the application is authenticated or not. If a user is authenticated and trying to access the dashboard then, the middleware will redirect that user to home page; otherwise, a user will be redirected to the login page.
There are two types of middleware available in Laravel:
Global Middleware
It will run on every HTTP request of the application.
Route Middleware
It will be assigned to a specific route.

15. What do you know about CSRF token in Laravel? How can someone turn off CSRF protection for a specific route?

CSRF protection stands for Cross-Site Request Forgery protection. CSRF detects unauthorized attacks on web applications by the unauthorized users of a system. The built-in CSRF plug-in is used to create CSRF tokens so that it can verify all the operations and requests sent by an active authenticated user.

To turn off CSRF protection for a specific route, we can add that specific URL or Route in $except variable which is present in the app\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken.phpfile.

16. What do you know about PHP artisan? Mention some artisan command?

PHP artisan is a command-line interface/tool provided with Laravel. It consists of several useful commands which can be helpful while building an application. There are few artisan commands given below:

PHP artisan list
A ‘list’ command is used to view a list of all available Artisan commands.

PHP artisan help
Every command also contains a ‘help’ screen, which is used to display and describe the command’s available arguments and options. To display a help screen, run ‘help’ command.

PHP artisan tinker
Laravel’s artisan tinker is a repl (Read-Eval-Print Loop). Using tinker, one can write actual PHP code through command-line. One can even update or delete table records in the database.

PHP artisan -version
By using this command, one can view the current version of Laravel installation.

PHP artisan make model model_name
This command creates a model ‘model_name.php’ under the ‘app’ directory.

PHP artisan make controller controller_name
This command is used to build a new controller file in app/Http/Controllers folder.