The project.json file was used in the early versions of ASP.NET Core (then known as ASP.NET 5), but it was replaced with the .csproj file format in .NET Core 2.0 and beyond. The project.json file defined project dependencies and configuration settings.

To create a new ASP.NET Core MVC project, you would typically use an integrated development environment (IDE) like 'Visual Studio Code.' Visual Studio Code provides excellent support for ASP.NET Core development, including project templates and extensions that streamline the development process.

Razor Layout Views in ASP.NET Core are primarily used to define the common structure or layout that multiple Razor views within your application will share. This allows you to maintain a consistent look and feel across various parts of your web application. They help separate the presentation logic from the content-specific views.

The Separation of Concerns (SoC) is a fundamental design principle in ASP.NET Core MVC. It advocates for dividing the application into distinct and separate components, where the Model handles data, the View manages the presentation, and the Controller orchestrates the flow of data between them. This separation enhances maintainability, testability, and scalability.

One of the core features of ASP.NET Core Identity is its ability to provide two-factor authentication (2FA). This adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide two forms of identification, typically something they know (password) and something they have (e.g., a mobile app-generated code) when logging in.

ASP.NET Core's primary advantage in this scenario is its cross-platform compatibility. It allows you to develop a web application that seamlessly runs on both Linux and Windows without the need for codebase modifications. This flexibility is especially valuable when targeting multiple platforms and ensuring a consistent user experience across them.

In SignalR, a "Hub" is used to describe a group of connections that can be broadcast to. Hubs provide a high-level API for organizing connections and managing communication between clients and the server in real-time applications.

The commonly used command to create a new migration for ASP.NET Core Identity changes is 'dotnet ef migrations add'. This command generates a new migration file containing the necessary SQL scripts to update the database schema based on changes in your Identity-related code.

Continuous Deployment (CD) is a deployment strategy where code changes are automatically deployed to production after passing automated tests. It enables rapid and reliable software delivery, ensuring that new features and bug fixes are quickly available to users.

The "Build Scripts" would NOT typically be found in the project.json file. Project.json primarily focused on project structure, dependencies, and target frameworks, whereas build scripts were typically defined in other build-related files or tools specific to the build system.

Project.json handled transitive dependencies explicitly, meaning it included both direct and transitive dependencies in the project file. In contrast, the NuGet approach in previous ASP.NET versions handled transitive dependencies implicitly, which required developers to manage them manually. Project.json's explicit handling improved transparency and control over dependencies.

To preserve the user's cart information across sessions, even after they log out, you should utilize Session state with server-side storage. This allows the cart data to be stored on the server, making it persistent across user sessions.