Configure Laravel with MySQL

 

Interview answer

Laravel connects to MySQL through environment variables in .env. The main configuration is exposed through config/database.php.

Code

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=shop
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=secret

Then clear cached configuration:

php artisan config:clear
php artisan migrate

Laravel uses PDO underneath, while Eloquent provides the ORM layer.

Real-project scenario

For a production application, I would avoid committing .env to Git. Credentials should come from environment variables or a secrets manager. I would also use a dedicated MySQL user with only the permissions the application needs rather than using root.