Location blocks in Nginx - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Output of Nginx location block matching

Given the following Nginx configuration snippet, what will be the response for a request to /images/logo.png?

Nginx

server {
    location /images/logo.png {
        return 200 'Logo image';
    }
    location /images/ {
        return 200 'Images folder';
    }
}

A 404 Not Found

B Logo image

C Images folder

D 500 Internal Server Error

💡 Hint

Nginx chooses the most specific matching location block.

The location /images/logo.png is more specific than /images/, so it handles the request and returns 'Logo image'.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Understanding prefix and regex location blocks

Which location block will handle a request to /api/v1/users given this configuration?

Nginx

location /api/ {
    return 200 'API prefix';
}
location ~ ^/api/v1/ {
    return 200 'API v1 regex';
}

A Both handle it simultaneously

B Neither handles it, 404 returned

C The regex location ~ ^/api/v1/ handles it

D The prefix location /api/ handles it

💡 Hint

Regex locations have higher priority if they match.

Nginx first checks prefix locations, then regex locations. If a regex matches, it takes precedence over prefix matches.

❓ Troubleshoot

advanced

Why does this location block not serve static files?

You have this Nginx config but requests to /static/css/style.css return 404. What is the likely cause?

Nginx

location /static/ {
    root /var/www/html;
}

A The root directive should be alias instead

B The root directive is correct; problem is file permissions

C The root path is incorrect, should be /var/www/html/static

D The location block should use alias /var/www/html/static/;

💡 Hint

Understand how root and alias work with location paths.

Using root with /static/ appends the full request URI after root, causing path mismatch. alias replaces the location prefix with the given path.

🔀 Workflow

advanced

Order of location block evaluation

Arrange the steps Nginx follows to select a location block for a request.

A 1,2,3,4

B 2,1,3,4

C 3,2,1,4

D 1,3,2,4

💡 Hint

Exact matches have highest priority.

Nginx first looks for exact matches, then prefix matches, then regex matches, and finally selects the best match.

✅ Best Practice

expert

Best practice for combining prefix and regex locations

Which configuration best ensures that requests to /app/ use a prefix location but requests to /app/api/ use a regex location?

A location /app/ { ... } location ~ ^/app/api/ { ... }

B location ~ ^/app/ { ... } location /app/api/ { ... }

C location /app/api/ { ... } location ~ ^/app/ { ... }

D location ~ ^/app/api/ { ... } location /app/ { ... }

💡 Hint

Regex locations override prefix locations if they match.

Defining the prefix location first and then the regex location for the subpath ensures correct matching and priority.