Worked on the cakephp/cakephp repository to address a critical issue in session management by ensuring that session timeout defaults to PHP’s session.gc_maxlifetime when not explicitly configured. This backend development effort involved modifying PHP configuration handling to align CakePHP’s session lifetime with the underlying PHP ini settings, thereby reducing the risk of misconfiguration and improving reliability across different environments. Added a regression test to verify the new default behavior, ensuring backward compatibility and consistent deployments. The work focused on PHP and session management, emphasizing stability and predictability without introducing user-facing API changes, and demonstrated careful attention to robust backend engineering practices.