Top 10 Laravel Interview Questions and Answers.

1. What is Laravel?

Laravel is a free, open-source PHP-based web framework that is used for building web applications using the MVC architectural pattern. Laravel was created with the aim to offer features that are not offered in CodeIgniter framework. These provide features such as in-built support for authorization and user authentication. Most framework releases are done in the first quarter of the year. Laravel provides bug fixes for 18 months and security fixes for two years.

2. What are the main features of Laravel?

Some of the main features of Laravel are:

• Eloquent ORM
• Query builder
• Reverse Routing
• Restful Controllers
• Migrations
• Database Seeding
• Unit Testing
• Homestead

3. Define Composer.

Laravel is a popular web application framework that allows you to build dynamic websites and applications.

A composer is a tool that includes all the dependencies and libraries. It helps the user to develop a project concerning the mentioned framework. Third-party libraries can be installed easily using composer.

Composer is used to managing its dependencies, which are noted in the composer.json file and placed in the source folder.

4. Explain some important directories you would use in a Laravel application

Some common directories include the following: 

• App/: This source folder holds the application’s primary code, including controllers and models. This directory represents the architectural pattern of a web app in development. 

• Public/: This directory contains publicly accessible files, including various assets, such as the index.php file. This PHP code file is the first to be loaded and executed when a user visits a website. 

• Database/: This directory holds database-related files and configurations, including migrations, seeders, and factories.

• Config/: The configuration folder holds configuration files for the website or application that enable developers to define its behavior. 

5. What is an artisan?

The artisan script is a command-line interface included with Laravel. It's the first thing you'll see when you run composer create-project, or PHP artisan serve.

Artisan is made up of commands and is one of your best friends for developing and managing your Laravel applications. You can view a list of all available Artisan commands by running PHP artisan list.

6. List PHP artisan commands in Laravel.

Following are the common PHP artisan commands:

• php artisan route:list: for listing all registered routes
• php artisan migrate: for running database migrations
• php artisan tinker: for interacting with the application
• php artisan make:seeder Seeder_Name: for creating a seeder
• php artisan make:model Model_Name: for creating a model
• php artisan make:mail Mail_Class_Name: for creating a mail class
• php artisan make:controller Controller_Name: for creating a controller
• php artisan make:middleware Middleware_Name: for creating a middleware
• php artisan make:migration create_table-name_table: for creating a migration

7. Explain the use of dd() in Laravel.

dd() stands for Dump and Die. It is a helper function is used for dumping a variable’s contents to the browser and stop further script execution. It is used to dump the variable/object and then die the script execution. 

8. How can you access session data in Laravel?

You will require an instance session to access session data. An instance of session can be accessed via HTTP request. To access the data, you can use either get() method that requires ‘key’ (argument).

$value = $request->session()->get(‘key’);

9. How to delete session data in Laravel?

To delete session data, you have the following different ways:

1. forget() method: To delete single item 

2. flush() method: To delete all session data  

3. pull() method: To retrieve and then delete session data

10. What do you understand about HTTP middleware?

HTTP middleware is used to filter HTTP requests. There is a middleware present in Laravel that is responsible for checking if an application user is authenticated.

Middleware provides a convenient mechanism for inspecting and filtering HTTP requests entering your application.

For example, Laravel includes a middleware that verifies the user of your application is authenticated. If the user is not authenticated, the middleware will redirect the user to your application’s login screen. However, if the user is authenticated, the middleware will allow the request to proceed further into the application.