WordPress Certified Editor Practice Exam 2025 – The All-in-One Guide to Master Your Certification!

The correct approach for displaying recent posts in a sidebar in WordPress is to utilize the "Recent Posts" widget. This widget is built into WordPress and makes it easy to showcase the latest posts without requiring any coding knowledge or modifications to theme files.

When you add the "Recent Posts" widget to a sidebar, you can customize various settings such as the title, the number of posts to display, and whether to show post dates. This functionality allows site owners to keep their content fresh and invites users to engage with new posts, enhancing the overall user experience.

In contrast, coding a shortcode in the sidebar might not always work as expected since shortcodes are typically intended for use within posts or pages rather than widget areas. Modifying the footer.php file is not a suitable method for displaying recent posts in the sidebar, as it pertains to the footer area and would require manual edits that could complicate future theme updates. Lastly, while the theme customizer allows for various customizations, it does not specifically provide a straightforward way to add recent posts to the sidebar. The use of the "Recent Posts" widget is a clean and efficient solution that aligns perfectly with WordPress's widget system.