What are named routes in Laravel and why are they useful?

 Interview Answer:

A named route gives a route a stable application-level name. Instead of hard-coding URLs throughout the application, code can refer to the route by name.

Example:
Route::get('/products', [ProductController::class, 'index'])
->name('products.index');

Then:
return redirect()->route('products.index');

Blade:
<a href="{{ route('products.index') }}">Products</a>

Scenario:
If /products changes to /catalog/products, code using route('products.index') does not need to change. Only the route definition changes.

Named routes are particularly useful for redirects, links, forms, authorization logic, testing, and URL generation.