How WordPress Actually Works Behind the Scenes (Infographic)

Have you ever wondered how WordPress actually works behind the scenes?

For a typical user, it seems simple because you type in a URL, and a page loads in a few seconds, but there is a lot that happens behind the scenes.

In this guide, we will walk you through how WordPress actually works behind the scenes, and we have created an easy-to-follow infographic as well.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a website builder and content management system. It is open-source software that anyone can use to make any kind of website imaginable.

It started out as a blogging platform in 2003 but soon transformed into a CMS and later a full-fledged website-building platform. Today it powers more than 43% of all websites on the internet.

To learn more about its evolution, history, and pros & cons, you can see our comprehensive guide on what is WordPress, and how much it costs to build a WordPress site.

Why Should You Learn How WordPress Works?

WordPress is an open source software, which means anyone can study its code and write their own apps (plugins) and templates (themes) for it.

Learning how WordPress works and what goes on behind the scenes can help you understand what you can do with it.

You can learn about improving WordPress performance and how to write better code for your projects.

This guide will walk you through the whole process step by step. We will start when a user requests a page and end when that page is fully loaded.

Ready? Let’s get started.

You can also follow our written tutorial below for more details.

1. Load wp-config.php File

The wp-config.php is the WordPress configuration file. It sets global variables for a WordPress site and contains your WordPress database information. This is the first file WordPress loads for obvious reasons.

Learn more about the wp-config.php file and how to edit it.

2. Set Up Default Constants

After loading the wp-config.php file, WordPress will move on to set default constants.

This includes information like the default WordPress upload location, maximum file sizes, and other default constants set in the wp-config.php file.

3. Load advanced-cache.php File

If an advanced-cache.php file exists on your site, then WordPress will load it next.

This file acts as a drop-in file and is used by several popular plugins, particularly WordPress caching plugins. If your site uses this file, you will see a new item on the plugins screen called Drop-ins.

4. Load wp-content/db.php File

WordPress allows developers to create their own database abstraction layers and load them in a db.php file placed inside the wp-content folder. WordPress caching plugins commonly use it to improve database performance.

If your website has this file present, then WordPress will load it.

5. Connect MySQL and Select Database

WordPress now has enough information to proceed further. It will connect to the MySQL server and select the database.

If WordPress cannot connect to the database, you will see the “Error establishing database connection” error, and WordPress will quit right here.

If everything works fine, then it will move on to the next steps.

6. Load object-cache.php or wp-includes/cache.php File

WordPress will now look for the object-cache.php file. If it doesn’t exist, then WordPress will move on to load the wp-includes/cache.php file.

7. Load wp-content/sunrise.php File

If it is a multisite network, then WordPress will look for the sunrise.php file if it exists in the wp-content folder.

8. Load Localization Library

WordPress will now load the l10n.php library in the wp-includes folder. This file loads the WordPress localization system, loads translations, sets locales, etc.

You can see our guide on how to use WordPress in other languages.

9. Load Multisite Plugins

If it is a multisite network, then WordPress will load the multisite plugins. Learn more about how plugins work on WordPress multisite network.

10. Do Action ‘muplugins_loaded’

The action muplugins_loaded is now run by WordPress. This action is available only to network-activated plugins on a WordPress multisite.

11. Load Active Plugins

WordPress will now load all active plugins on the site. It does that by looking in the active_plugins entry in the options table of your WordPress database. This allows WordPress to ignore plugins that are installed on your site but not activated.

12. Load pluggable.php File

The pluggable.php file contains functions that can be redefined by WordPress plugins.

WordPress will now see if another plugin already defines the functions inside this file. Otherwise, it will define those functions themselves.

13. Do Action ‘plugins_loaded’

WordPress will now run the action ‘plugins_loaded’.

It allows developers to hook their functions to run after all active plugins have been loaded.

14. Load Rewrite Rules

WordPress will now load the rewrite rules. These rewrite rules help WordPress use SEO-friendly URLs.

15. Instantiate $wp_query, $wp_rewrite, $wp

At this point, WordPress loads the following objects:

$wp_query: The global instance that holds WP_Query class. It tells WordPress what content is requested in a typical WordPress query format.

$wp_rewrite: The global instance that holds your WP_Rewrite class. It contains your rewrite rules and functions, which tell WordPress which URL to use to display the requested content.

$wp: The global instance of the WP class contains functions that will parse your request and perform the main query.

16. Do Action ‘setup_theme’

WordPress will now move on to run the ‘setup_theme’ action. This action runs before your WordPress theme is loaded.

17. Load Child Theme’s functions.php File

The functions.php file acts as a plugin and is used in WordPress themes to add theme-specific features to your website. If you are using a child theme, then WordPress will now load your child theme’s functions.php file.

Otherwise, it will go on and load your current active theme’s functions.php file.

18. Load Parent Theme’s functions.php File

If you are using a child theme, then WordPress will now load your parent theme’s functions.php file.

19. Do Action ‘after_setup_theme’

This action runs after WordPress has set up the theme and loaded theme functions. It is the first action available to themes.

20. Setup Current User Object

At this point, WordPress loads the current user object. It allows WordPress to manage the request in accordance with the user’s role and capabilities.

21. Do Action ‘init’

WordPress has so far loaded all the crucial information it needs. Now it fires the ‘init’ action. This action also registers blocks available in the core or provided by any plugins installed on that website.

This action enables developers to add code that needs to be executed after WordPress has loaded all previously mentioned information.

22. Do Action ‘widget_init’

The widget_init action allows developers to register widgets and run the code they need to run at this time.

23. Run wp()

WordPress now calls the wp() function, which is located in wp-includes/functions.php file. It sets up the WordPress query globals $wp, $wp_query, $wp_the_query, and then calls $wp->main.

24. Parse Request

Now WordPress has all the information it needs to parse the user request. It starts by checking the rewrite rules to match the user’s request.

And then runs query variable filters, requests a action hook, and sends a header request.

25. Run Query

If no content matches the query, then WordPress will set is_404 variable.

Otherwise, WordPress will go on to load query variables.

It will then run WP_Query->get_posts().

Next, it fires DO_ACTION_REF_ARRAY ‘pre_get_posts’ action with WP_Query object.

WordPress will now run apply_filters to clean up the query and run some final checks.

Now, it fetches posts from the database and applies posts_results and the_posts filters.

The query part ends with WordPress returning the posts.

26. Do Action ‘template_redirect’

WordPress will now run the template_redirect action. This hook runs just before WordPress determines which template page to load.

27. Load Feed Template

If the requested content is an RSS feed, then WordPress loads the feed template.

28. Load Template

WordPress will now look for the template file based on the WordPress template hierarchy. It then loads the template, which usually contains a WordPress loop.

29. Do Action ‘shutdown’

Just before ending all PHP execution, WordPress fires the last action called shutdown.

WordPress stops working here. It has run the code and generated the user’s requested web page.

Now, your web hosting server replies to a user’s request by sending them the web page generated by WordPress. This page contains HTML, CSS, and Javascript code, which tells the user’s browser how to display it on screen.

Amazing, isn’t it? All these things happen within milliseconds. If you are using one of these best WordPress hosting services, your page will ideally load in a couple of seconds.

We hope this article helped you learn how WordPress works behind the scenes. You may also want to see our step-by-step guide on how to boost WordPress speed and performance and our expert picks for the best WordPress plugins to grow your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.