Blockchain Developer Certification Practice Exam 2026 – All-In-One Guide to Master Your Certification!

The primary difference between calling a function and sending a transaction to a function lies in the nature of the operations and their implications on the blockchain. When you call a function, this is typically a local operation that doesn't require any alteration of the blockchain state. It is instantaneous and incurs no gas costs. This means that the function can be executed by anyone without needing to pay for it, and the result can be returned immediately.

On the other hand, sending a transaction is a more significant action because it involves altering the state of the blockchain. This requires processing by the network, incurs gas fees, and can take time to be confirmed. When you send a transaction, you're registering a change in the blockchain, such as updating contract state or transferring tokens, which necessitates the consensus of the network and thus introduces both cost and latency.

This distinction is crucial for understanding how interactions with blockchain contracts function and how developers should architect their applications to either utilize read-only calls or state-changing transactions accordingly.