Level 4 exam — PHP · GUIDINEE.COM

Exam — fresh questions

12 questions to validate the level: MVC, Laravel, Symfony, REST API with JWT and PHPUnit tests.
Answer everything, then click Check: your score and explanations will appear.

4.1 · Recall

1. In the MVC pattern, who does what?

Model = routing, View = tests, Controller = deployment Model = HTML, View = database, Controller = CSS Everything happens in the view, the rest is decoration Model (data + logic), View (display), Controller (coordination)

Data to the model, display to the view, coordination to the controller.

4.2 · Recall

2. What do Blade and Eloquent do in Laravel?

Blade = templates with automatic escaping, Eloquent = ORM as objects Blade = database, Eloquent = HTML Blade removes routing, Eloquent removes tests Blade deploys, Eloquent saves to CSV

Safe templates + database as objects with automatic prepared statements.

4.3 · Recall

3. What is Symfony's major characteristic?

An architecture of independent, reusable components The absence of any template system A language different from PHP Banning ORMs

Components: modularity, reuse even outside Symfony.

4.1 · Application

4. Riad finds an SQL query in a view. What should he do?

Duplicate it in the CSS Move it to the model, the view receiving only ready-made data Delete the database Leave it, it works

Dumb views: display; rich models: data and rules.

4.2 · Application

5. Riad's product list runs one query per row (N+1). Reflex?

Store the prices in the template Add more queries to compensate Load the relation in one go (eager loading, with()) and check the generated SQL Switch everything to 200 to go faster

Understand Eloquent's SQL; one query instead of one per row.

4.4 · Application

6. Riad's mobile app creates a product (POST /api/produits). Expected codes?

No code, the body is enough 201 if created, 400 if invalid, 401 without a token 200 even on error, always 302 then 418 in all cases

201 after creation, 400 if invalid, 401 if unauthenticated.

4.4 · Application

7. A request arrives with no token on Riad's protected /api/produits. Response?

Redirect to a video 200 with the data anyway 500 with no explanation 401 (missing/invalid token), secret verified from the environment

401 = unauthenticated; secret in .env, never hardcoded.

4.5 · Application

8. Riad wants to lock his prixTTC calculation. First test?

assertEquals(120, prixTTC(100, 0.20)) plus one edge case, run via ./vendor/bin/phpunit Delete the function so there is no bug anymore Test only the CSS An echo saying "looks good"

Input → expected in an assertion, edge cases included.

4.3 · Application

9. Riad's client requires Symfony while the team knows Laravel. Arbitration?

Rewrite everything in hand-written SQL Refuse any Symfony assignment Translate the concepts (Blade→Twig, Eloquent→Doctrine): same ideas, different vocabulary Mix both frameworks at random

Transferable concepts: MVC, ORM, templates, routing.

4.2 · Arbitration

10. Riad finds the JWT secret hardcoded in a pushed commit. First reflex?

Delete the tests to compensate Leave it, nobody looks Copy it into the README too Move it to an environment variable (ignored .env), regenerate the secret and revoke the old one

Secret out of the code and out of Git; immediate rotation after exposure.

4.5 · Arbitration

11. On the eve of the sales, Riad hesitates to test ("it already works"). Decision?

Ship fast without tests, we will see in production Write at minimum tests on the critical logic (normal + edge cases) and rerun them on each tweak Test by hand once, without automating Remove validation to save time

Non-regression: the green suite before each delivery.

4.4 · Arbitration

12. Riad must serve the same catalogue to the site and the mobile app. Architecture?

Return an empty 200 to relieve the server Duplicate the logic in two separate codebases Expose a versioned REST API (/api/v1/) in JSON + JWT, consumed by both clients Send the site's HTML to the mobile app as is

One decoupled back end, several clients, versioned contract.

What's next?

Score ≥ 80%: move to Level 5 — pro PHP (patterns, performance, Docker, deployment) and take your applications to production.
Score 50-79%: revisit the failed sections (MVC 4.1, Laravel 4.2, Symfony 4.3, API/JWT 4.4, PHPUnit 4.5), reread the explanations above, then retake the test.
Score < 50%: restart the level from 4.1, coding each template (MVC, CRUD, Twig, API, tests), then retry the exam with a fresh mind.