PHP Case Studies & Practical Application 2

Question 1

You are building a REST API in PHP that receives JSON payloads. Which function correctly decodes the incoming request body into a PHP associative array?

Accepted Answer

json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true)

Answer

php://input provides the raw request body, and passing true as the second argument to json_decode returns an associative array instead of an object.

Question 2

A legacy PHP application concatenates user input directly into SQL queries. What is the safest modern fix?

Accepted Answer

Use PDO with prepared statements and bound parameters

Answer

PDO prepared statements separate SQL logic from data, completely preventing SQL injection regardless of input content.

Question 3

Your PHP script processes large CSV uploads and times out. Which approach best resolves the timeout without increasing max_execution_time?

Accepted Answer

Process the file in chunks using a generator that yields rows one at a time

Answer

Generators process data lazily one row at a time, keeping memory low and allowing the script to complete without hitting execution limits.

Question 4

A team needs multiple developers to share session data across two PHP app servers behind a load balancer. What is the correct approach?

Accepted Answer

Store sessions in a shared Redis instance using session_set_save_handler()

Answer

A centralized session store like Redis ensures any server can read any user's session, solving the stateless server problem.

Question 5

You need to send a transactional email in PHP when a user registers. Which approach is most production-ready?

Accepted Answer

Use a library like PHPMailer or Symfony Mailer with an SMTP relay service

Answer

PHPMailer with an SMTP relay provides authentication, TLS encryption, proper headers, and reliable delivery tracking.

PHP - PHP Programming Language Practice Test

PHP - PHP Programming Language Practice Test

PHP Case Studies & Practical Application 2