Migration between environments in Wordpress - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

What happens to URLs when migrating a WordPress site to a new domain?

You move your WordPress site from oldsite.com to newsite.com. What must you do to ensure all URLs work correctly?

A Delete all posts and recreate them with the new domain URLs.

B Only change the domain name in the hosting control panel; WordPress updates URLs automatically.

C Update the site URL and home URL in the WordPress database to the new domain.

D No changes needed; WordPress uses relative URLs that adjust automatically.

💡 Hint

Think about where WordPress stores the site address and how it builds links.

WordPress stores the site URL and home URL in the database. When migrating, these must be updated to the new domain so links and media URLs work correctly.

❓ component_behavior

intermediate

What is the effect of importing a WordPress database dump without updating serialized data?

You export your WordPress database from the old environment and import it into the new one. You do not update serialized data containing old URLs. What will happen?

A Only images will fail to load, but links remain correct.

B The site will work perfectly because serialized data is ignored by WordPress.

C The database import will fail with a syntax error.

D Some links and settings may break because serialized data length mismatches cause errors.

💡 Hint

Serialized data stores string lengths. What happens if the string changes but length does not?

Serialized data includes string lengths. If URLs change but lengths are not updated, WordPress cannot read the data correctly, causing broken links or settings.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does the WordPress site show a blank page after migration?

After migrating your WordPress site to a new server, the site shows a blank white page. Which option is the most likely cause?

A PHP memory limit is too low or a fatal PHP error occurred.

B The database user password is too long.

C The theme folder is empty but plugins are active.

D The .htaccess file is missing but WordPress does not use it.

💡 Hint

Check error logs or enable debugging to find PHP errors.

A blank page usually means a PHP fatal error or memory exhaustion. Checking error logs or enabling WP_DEBUG helps find the issue.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which wp-config.php change is required when migrating to a new database?

You migrate your WordPress site to a new server with a different database name, user, and password. Which wp-config.php snippet correctly updates the database connection?

A define('DB_NAME', 'new_db');\ndefine('DB_USER', 'new_user');\ndefine('DB_PASSWORD', 'new_pass');

B define('DB_NAME', new_db);\ndefine('DB_USER', new_user);\ndefine('DB_PASSWORD', new_pass);

C DB_NAME = 'new_db';\nDB_USER = 'new_user';\nDB_PASSWORD = 'new_pass';

D set('DB_NAME', 'new_db');\nset('DB_USER', 'new_user');\nset('DB_PASSWORD', 'new_pass');

💡 Hint

Remember how constants are defined in PHP.

In wp-config.php, database credentials are set using the PHP define() function with string values in quotes.

❓ state_output

expert

What is the final site URL after this migration script runs?

Given this PHP snippet run after migrating a WordPress site, what will get_option('siteurl') return?

Wordpress

<?php
update_option('siteurl', 'https://newdomain.com');
update_option('home', 'https://newdomain.com');
$siteurl = get_option('siteurl');
echo $siteurl;
?>

A https://olddomain.com

B https://newdomain.com

C http://newdomain.com

D An empty string

💡 Hint

What does update_option do to the stored value?

update_option changes the stored value in the database. get_option then returns the updated value.