What are Named Routes in Laravel?
Why Interviewers Ask This
Foundational questions like this help interviewers calibrate the rest of the interview. A confident, accurate answer signals that you have solid Laravel basics — a prerequisite for any developer role.
Answer
Named routes allow you to give a route a memorable name and then generate URLs or redirects by name instead of hardcoding paths. Assign a name with ->name("users.index"): Route::get("/users", [UserController::class, "index"])->name("users.index"). Generate a URL: route("users.index"). With parameters: route("users.show", ["id" => 1]) or route("users.show", $user) (Eloquent model route-model binding). Redirect by name: redirect()->route("users.index"). Named routes are crucial because if you change a URL path, you only change it in the route definition — all route() calls automatically reflect the new path without updating every view and controller.
Common Mistake
Don't just define the term — demonstrate that you understand when to use it and when not to. Showing awareness of trade-offs is what separates average from strong Laravel candidates.