Walk through the request/response lifecycle in Django, and explain why middleware order matters.

Summary

The WSGI or ASGI handler builds an HttpRequest; it passes down through MIDDLEWARE in order; the URL resolver picks the view; process_view hooks run; the view returns a response (process_exception on errors, template responses rendered); the response passes back up through the middleware in reverse order; request_finished fires. Order matters because middleware can only use what earlier middleware set up, for example request.user from AuthenticationMiddleware, which needs SessionMiddleware before it.

Longer Answer

A custom middleware placed above AuthenticationMiddleware sees no user, so an audit log records everyone as anonymous. Request-phase code runs top-down and response-phase code bottom-up.

Key Points

• A custom middleware placed above AuthenticationMiddleware sees no user, so an audit log records everyone as anonymous
• Request-phase code runs top-down and response-phase code bottom-up

• What interviewers look for

The onion model and a concrete ordering dependency

• Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'Walk through the request/response lifecycle in Django, and explain why middleware order matters.'

Comparison / Tradeoffs

The onion model and a concrete ordering dependency. |

What interviewers look for

The onion model and a concrete ordering dependency.