makemigrations and migrate commands in Django - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

What does the makemigrations command do in Django?

Choose the correct description of what happens when you run python manage.py makemigrations.

A It resets the database to its initial empty state.

B It applies all pending migrations to the database.

C It creates migration files based on changes detected in your models.

D It deletes all existing migration files in the project.

💡 Hint

Think about which command prepares changes but does not apply them yet.

The makemigrations command looks at your Django models and creates migration files that describe the changes. It does not change the database itself.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

What is the purpose of the migrate command in Django?

Select the correct explanation of what python manage.py migrate does.

A It creates new migration files from model changes.

B It applies migration files to update the database schema.

C It deletes all migration files and resets the database.

D It generates a new Django project with migrations.

💡 Hint

This command changes the database structure based on migration files.

The migrate command reads migration files and applies them to the database, updating tables and schema accordingly.

❓ component_behavior

advanced

What will happen if you run migrate without running makemigrations after changing models?

Consider you changed a model but only run python manage.py migrate. What is the outcome?

A The database schema updates to match the model changes automatically.

B The old migration files are deleted and replaced.

C An error occurs because migrations are missing.

D No changes are applied because no new migration files exist.

💡 Hint

Think about what migrate uses to update the database.

Without new migration files created by makemigrations, migrate has no instructions to apply, so the database stays unchanged.

🔧 Debug

advanced

You ran makemigrations but no migration file was created. What could be the reason?

Which of the following is the most likely cause for makemigrations not generating a migration file?

A You forgot to add the app to <code>INSTALLED_APPS</code> in settings.

B You ran <code>migrate</code> before <code>makemigrations</code>.

C You deleted all migration files manually.

D You changed the database directly without updating models.

💡 Hint

Django only tracks models for apps listed in settings.

If the app is not listed in INSTALLED_APPS, Django ignores its models and does not create migrations.

📝 Syntax

expert

What error will this command produce if run in a Django project with no migrations folder?
python manage.py migrate

Assuming the project has no migrations folder or migration files yet, what will happen when you run python manage.py migrate?

A It will apply built-in Django migrations for default apps but skip missing app migrations.

B It will raise a <code>ModuleNotFoundError</code> because migrations are missing.

C It will raise a <code>django.db.migrations.exceptions.MigrationSchemaMissing</code> error.

D It will create the migrations folder and apply initial migrations automatically.

💡 Hint

Django has built-in migrations for its core apps.

Even if your app has no migrations, Django applies migrations for built-in apps like auth and admin. It does not error if your app lacks migrations.