# Authentication (Laravel) > Laravel Breeze, guards, middleware auth, password hashing, remember me, email verification, password reset - 20 interview questions - Mid-Level - [Interview Questions: Laravel](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/laravel/interview-questions.md) ## 1. What is a guard in Laravel? **Answer** A guard defines the authentication mechanism used to verify user identity. Laravel provides by default the 'web' guard for sessions and 'api' guard for tokens. Guards allow managing different authentication types simultaneously and configuring how users are authenticated in each request. ## 2. What is the main role of the 'auth' middleware in Laravel? **Answer** The 'auth' middleware verifies that the current user is authenticated before accessing a route. If the user is not authenticated, they are redirected to the login page. This middleware is essential to protect routes requiring authentication and ensure only logged-in users access them. ## 3. What is the difference between Hash::make() and bcrypt() in Laravel? **Answer** Hash::make() is Laravel's recommended abstraction for hashing passwords, while bcrypt() is a specific function. Hash::make() uses bcrypt by default but allows changing the hashing algorithm in configuration (argon2id, bcrypt). Using Hash::make() is considered best practice as it offers more flexibility and control over the hashing mechanism. ## 17 more questions available - What is the role of the 'remember_token' in Laravel? - What is Laravel Breeze? 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