What are the main features of Laravel?

In a Laravel interview, the main features of Laravel can be highlighted as follows:

1. Eloquent ORM (Object-Relational Mapping): Laravel provides a powerful ORM that allows developers to interact with the database using PHP objects. It simplifies database operations and makes code more readable and maintainable.
2. Routing: Laravel offers a simple and expressive routing system that helps developers define application routes using a concise syntax. It enables creating RESTful APIs and handling HTTP requests effectively.
3. Middleware: Middleware provides a mechanism for filtering HTTP requests entering the application. It allows developers to implement cross-cutting concerns such as authentication, logging, and CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing).
4. Blade Templating Engine: Blade is a lightweight templating engine provided by Laravel. It offers convenient directives for working with loops, conditional statements, and includes, making the presentation layer more manageable.
5. Authentication and Authorization: Laravel simplifies user authentication and authorization with built-in features like authentication scaffolding, middleware, and policies. Developers can easily control access to resources based on user roles and permissions.
6. Artisan CLI (Command Line Interface): Laravel comes with a powerful CLI tool called Artisan, which offers a wide range of commands for automating repetitive tasks such as database migrations, generating boilerplate code, and managing application assets.
7. Database Migrations and Seeding: Laravel’s migration system allows developers to manage database schemas and easily propagate changes across different environments. Additionally, seeding enables populating the database with sample data for testing and development purposes.
8. Testing Support: Laravel provides support for writing automated tests with PHPUnit out of the box. It includes helpful features like testing HTTP requests, mocking objects, and asserting responses, promoting test-driven development (TDD) practices.
9. Queues and Job Scheduling: Laravel simplifies asynchronous processing and background tasks with its built-in queue system. Developers can define tasks as jobs and dispatch them to be processed later. Additionally, Laravel’s task scheduler allows automating repetitive tasks using a simple, expressive syntax.
10. Security: Laravel prioritizes security by incorporating features like hashed passwords, CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) protection, and encryption. It also offers tools for handling input validation and protecting against common web vulnerabilities.

These features collectively contribute to making Laravel a robust and developer-friendly PHP framework for building web applications.