50 Essential Laravel Interview Questions and Answers for Developers

Laravel is a free, open-source PHP web framework designed for building web applications using the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern. It offers an elegant syntax and powerful tools that make it easier for developers to write clean and maintainable code.

Laravel stands out because of its robust ecosystem, built-in tools, and developer-friendly features. Tools like Eloquent ORM, Blade Templating Engine, and Artisan CLI streamline tasks, saving time and effort during development.

Laravel boasts several core features, including:
Eloquent ORM for database management
Blade templating engine
Route and middleware management
Built-in authentication and authorization
Queue and event broadcasting system

The .env file holds environment-specific configuration values, such as database credentials, caching settings, mail configuration, etc. This file enables the application to have different setups for development, testing, and production environments.

MVC (Model-View-Controller) is a design pattern that separates an application into three components:
Model: Manages the data and business logic.
View: Displays the user interface.
Controller: Acts as an intermediary between Model and View, processing requests and returning responses.
Laravel implements MVC by offering tools like Eloquent ORM for Models, Blade for Views, and Controllers to handle the application logic.

Dependency injection is a technique where an object receives other objects it depends on. Laravel supports this by using its Service Container to resolve class dependencies automatically, either by constructor injection or method injection.

Middleware is a filtering mechanism in Laravel that sits between the request and the response. It can inspect and modify requests before they reach the controller, or responses before they are sent back to the client.

Controllers are classes that handle user requests and return responses. They help to organize code and separate logic from the routes. Laravel provides resource controllers to automate basic CRUD operations.

You can create resource controllers using Artisan with the command: php artisan make:controller ResourceController --resource Resource controllers automatically handle the routing for basic CRUD operations.

The request lifecycle in Laravel involves several stages:
A request is received by the web server.
The request is processed by the middleware.
The route is matched and the corresponding controller or closure is executed.
The controller processes the request and interacts with models or services.
A response is generated and passed through middleware again.
The response is returned to the browser.

The Laravel Blade templating engine is a powerful component of the framework that enables you to easily create dynamic templates using a simple and intuitive syntax. It provides structures for conditional statements and loops. To create a Blade template, you just need to save a view file with a .blade.php extension instead of a .php extension. These templates are stored in the /resources/views directory. The main advantage of using Blade templates is the ability to create a master template that other files can extend.

Laravel has you covered. The database configuration file is app/config/database.php. You can define your database connections in .env file, well it is best practice to hide direct access to these files Examples of all of the supported database systems are provided in this file.
Laravel supports four database systems: MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, and SQL Server.

Laravel makes it easy to manage your deployment with minimal effort. Laravel allows you to quickly and easily disable your application while updating or performing maintenance when you need to make changes to your server or database.
To enable maintenance mode, the following are some helpful laravel commands related to maintenance mode:
# enable maintenance mode
php artisan down
# disable maintenance mode
php artisan up
# if you want the client to refresh
# page after a specified number of seconds
php artisan down –retry=60

Laravel’s database seeding feature offers a convenient way to swiftly insert data into your database. It’s a boon for development environments, especially when you’re working without access to your production database.
Laravel comes with a default Database seeder class, providing you with the ability to seed your database with data. This class is already defined for you, and you can use the call method from this class to run other seed classes. All seed classes are stored in the database/seeders directory.
A seeder class is designed to contain a single method: run. This method is automatically invoked when the db: seed Artisan command is executed. You can use the query builder to insert data or Eloquent model factories within this method.

Laravel is a framework that follows the Model-View-Controller design pattern. All your models, views, and controllers are stored in their directories, making it easy to keep track of everything.
You’ll use controllers to handle user requests and retrieve data by leveraging models. Models interact with your database and recover your objects’ information. Finally, views render pages.
Laravel comes with a fantastic, built-in command line interface called Artisan CLI that provides complete commands to help you build your application.

Our first step should be
DB::connection()->enableQueryLog();
After our query, you should place it
$querieslog = DB::getQueryLog();
After that, you should place it
dd($querieslog)

The latest version of Laravel is Laravel 11.24. Some of the features of Laravel 11 include:
Streamlined application structure
Per-second rate limiting
Health routing
Graceful encryption key rotation
Queue testing improvements
Resend mail transport
Prompt validator integration
New Artisan commands
Laravel Reverb, a WebSocket serve

All facades of Laravel have defined in Illuminate\Support\Facades namespace.

The GET method requests data from a server, enabling the client to access HTML documents, images, and videos.
Meanwhile, POST sends data to a server to create a new resource or change the server’s state. For example, users entering a web page’s login details send data (the password) to the server.

A session timeout is the length of time a user’s session remains active when the user does not perform any activity. Once this expires, the user is considered inactive and logged out. Session timeouts enhance the security of an application by preventing unauthorized access.
The default session timeout duration in Laravel is two hours. However, developers can customize this time for their applications. 

Below are some common Artisan commands: 
php artisan down
php artisan up
php artisan make:controller
php artisan make:model
php artisan make:migration
php artisan make:middleware
php artisan make:auth
php artisan config:clear
php artisan view:clear
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan db:seed

A Blade template file uses the Blade templating engine to generate and render views for web applications. These templates enable programmers to define a master layout that can be shared across different web pages and provide a clean user interface. This view file also fosters the creation of statements, loops, and switch cases.
To identify a Blade template file, developers must locate the resources/views folder and look for files with the .blade.php extension. These files should contain HTML markup and Blade syntax.

Relationships in Laravel define the relations between models and tables in the database. They enable programmers to distinguish connections and understand how different models connect, enabling them to perform operations on the records related to the data easily. 
Laravel’s ORM system manages relationships and receives relevant data. Understanding what relationships are is vital for performing queries in the framework. 
The common types of Laravel relationships include: 
One-to-one: A record in one table relates to one record in another to hold large amounts of data. For example, students in a school database only have one ID, meaning that identification only belongs to one person. 
One-to-many: A record in one table relates to one or more records in another table to structure data hierarchically. For example, an automaker designs many different car models, but those models only belong to a single manufacturer. 
Many-to-many: Multiple records in one table relate to multiple records in another table to show important relations between entities. For example, customers can buy however many products they want since they don’t belong to an individual. 
When developers create complex applications with many related data entities, these relationships can save time, such as task management apps with infinite subtask levels. 

CSRF stands for cross-site request forgery, a type of cyberattack that can occur in web applications. Users who experience this attack may unknowingly execute unauthorized commands on a trusted web page. If the attack is successful, it can damage client relationships by exposing funds and changing passwords. 
Candidates should always understand potential risks on a programming interface to ensure they’re protecting your products and users. Give them a bonus point if they mention same-site cookies, which send and confirm requests from the same site.