How Database Transactions Work and How to Implement Them in Laravel

Database transactions ensure data integrity by following an all-or-nothing principle, meaning either every operation in a group succeeds or none are applied. They are governed by four core properties — atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability — collectively known as ACID. Laravel provides built-in support for transactions via DB::transaction(), with options for manual control using beginTransaction(), commit(), and rollback(). Developers can also set transaction isolation levels such as READ COMMITTED or SERIALIZABLE depending on the use case, from e-commerce to financial reporting. Common pitfalls include running slow external API calls inside transactions and silently swallowing exceptions, both of which can leave the database in an inconsistent state.