MVC, Blade and Routing

Solution and explanation

• One of the most important questions for a 5-year developer.
• For GET /api/products:

Web Server
    ↓
public/index.php
    ↓
Application Bootstrap
    ↓
Service Providers
    ↓
HTTP Kernel / Middleware Pipeline
    ↓
Router
    ↓
Route Middleware
    ↓
Controller
    ↓
Service
    ↓
Database
    ↓
Response
    ↓
Middleware
    ↓
HTTP Response

• public/index.php is the entry point; it loads bootstrap/app.php, creates the application and sends the request through the HTTP kernel.

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

• Interview tip: don't just say "the route calls the controller".
• Walk through web server, index.php, bootstrap, service providers, middleware, router, controller, business logic, database and response.

Solution and explanation

• web.php is for browser routes and runs the web middleware group: sessions, cookies and CSRF protection.

Route::get('/products', fn () => view('products'));

• api.php is for stateless HTTP APIs.
• Its routes are prefixed with /api and usually authenticate with tokens (for example Sanctum) instead of sessions.
• In Laravel 11+ the file is added with php artisan install:api.

Route::get('/products', [ProductController::class, 'index']);

• Typical API routes:

GET    /api/products
POST   /api/products
PUT    /api/products/{id}
DELETE /api/products/{id}

Solution and explanation

• web.php is for browser routes and runs the web middleware group: sessions, cookies and CSRF protection.

Route::get('/products', fn () => view('products'));

• api.php is for stateless HTTP APIs.
• Its routes are prefixed with /api and usually authenticate with tokens (for example Sanctum) instead of sessions.
• In Laravel 11+ the file is added with php artisan install:api.

Route::get('/products', [ProductController::class, 'index']);

• Typical API routes:

GET    /api/products
POST   /api/products
PUT    /api/products/{id}
DELETE /api/products/{id}

Solution and explanation

• MVC means Model, View, Controller.

• Model: responsible for data and database interaction.

class Product extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'price', 'category_id'];
}

• View: responsible for presentation.

<h1>{{ $product->name }}</h1>
<p>Price: {{ $product->price }}</p>

• Controller: coordinates the request.

class ProductController extends Controller
{
    public function show(int $id)
    {
        $product = Product::findOrFail($id);

        return view('products.show', compact('product'));
    }
}

Request → Route → Controller → Model → Database → Model → Controller → View → Response

• Important interview point: don't say "the model contains all business logic".
• In a small application it might, but in a large production application responsibilities are separated:

Controller
   ↓
Service
   ↓
Repository / Query
   ↓
Model

Solution and explanation

• Eloquent is Laravel's ORM (Object Relational Mapping).
• Instead of SQL like SELECT * FROM products WHERE id = 10 you write:

$product = Product::find(10);

Product::create(['name' => 'Samsung A35', 'price' => 30000]);

$product->update(['price' => 28000]);

$product->delete();