How To Master React In 2024 (Complete Roadmap)

Summary

This comprehensive video offers an exhaustive roadmap for mastering React, guiding viewers through key concepts, from understanding the DOM and dynamic websites to components, state management, hooks, and performance optimization. While acknowledging React's declining popularity for website development, replaced by frameworks like Next.js, the video positions React as a prerequisite for learning Next.js and React Native for mobile app development. It covers essential topics like routing, styling, tooling, forms management, data fetching, and testing, providing a solid foundation for those embarking on the React journey.

Takeaways

• 😄 Understand the DOM and dynamic websites to appreciate the value React brings for building modern web applications.
• 🧠 Comprehend React's underlying reconciliation process and how it works under the hood to manage dynamic user interfaces.
• 🚀 Start with creating basic React apps (like a todo list or calculator) to understand how React components wrap HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• 🧱 Master React fundamentals: components, state, rendering, and props - the core building blocks of React applications.
• 🔄 Learn React hooks (useState, useEffect, useMemo, useCallback, useRef) to manage state and side effects in functional components.
• 🧰 Create custom hooks to encapsulate reusable stateful logic and separate concerns in your codebase.
• 🔗 Grasp concepts like prop drilling, context API, and suspense API to manage and optimize state across components.
• 📦 Explore state management tools like Redux, Recoil, or Zustand for better state management in larger applications.
• 🌐 Implement routing in your React apps to handle multiple pages and views using libraries like React Router.
• 💅 Learn styling techniques and libraries like Tailwind CSS, Material UI, or Styled Components to build visually appealing UIs.

Q & A

What is the purpose of this video?

The purpose of this video is to provide a comprehensive roadmap for learning React, covering various topics that are essential for getting started with React development.

Why is it important to understand the DOM and dynamic websites before learning React?

Understanding the DOM and dynamic websites is crucial because it helps you grasp the challenges and problems that React solves, and why it was adopted so quickly. It also provides an intuition for the difficulties of manipulating the DOM directly, which React aims to simplify.

What is reconciliation, and why is it important to understand how React works under the hood?

Reconciliation is the process by which React updates the DOM efficiently. Understanding how React works under the hood, including reconciliation, is important because it helps you comprehend the principles and mechanisms behind React's performance and functionality.

What is the significance of building a basic React application and analyzing the output?

Building a basic React application and analyzing the output helps you understand that React is ultimately generating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, similar to what you would write manually. It reinforces the concept that React is a tool to simplify and streamline the process of creating dynamic web applications.

What are the four key concepts in React that need to be understood?

The four key concepts in React that need to be understood are components, state, rendering, and props. Understanding these concepts is crucial for creating React applications and grasping the power and principles behind React.

What is the purpose of hooks in React, and why are they important?

Hooks in React provide a way to tap into lifecycle events and handle side effects in functional components. They are important because they allow developers to write more concise and reusable code, and enable the use of state and other React features in functional components.

What is prop drilling, and how can it be addressed in React applications?

Prop drilling is an anti-pattern in React where state is passed down through multiple levels of components. It can be addressed by using the Context API provided by React or by implementing a state management solution like Redux or Recoil.

Why is routing important in React applications, and what are some popular routing libraries?

Routing is important in React applications because it allows for handling multiple pages or views within a single-page application. Some popular routing libraries for React include React Router, Next.js (which includes routing), and Reach Router.

What are some popular styling libraries for React applications?

Some popular styling libraries for React applications include Tailwind CSS, Material-UI, Styled Components, Emotion, and Chakra UI.

What are some performance improvement techniques and libraries mentioned in the video?

The video mentions using libraries like React Hook Form and Formik for optimizing form management, libraries like SWR and React Query for efficient data fetching, and potentially writing tests for improved code quality and maintainability.

Outlines

00:00

🔑 Understanding Dynamic Websites and React's Inception

This paragraph discusses the importance of understanding the Document Object Model (DOM) and creating dynamic websites. It outlines the challenges of manipulating the DOM before the introduction of React and how frameworks like jQuery and Backbone.js attempted to simplify this process. It emphasizes the need to grasp the problems that React aimed to solve and why it gained rapid adoption by making front-end development more accessible.

05:00

🧩 React's Inner Workings and Reconciliation

This section focuses on understanding React's internal mechanisms, particularly the concept of reconciliation, which contributes to its performance. It suggests starting with writing raw HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then progressing to using React as a layer of abstraction. The analogy of using an AI like ChatGPT to write React code is provided to illustrate the importance of comprehending the underlying technologies before relying on higher-level tools.

10:01

🚀 Building React Applications and Understanding the Output

This paragraph encourages setting up a basic React boilerplate locally, creating simple applications like a to-do list or calculator, and analyzing the final output. The goal is to understand that React ultimately generates HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, with the benefit of abstracting away the complexities of dynamic JavaScript code. It serves as a practical exercise to reinforce the concept that React is a tool to facilitate writing these core web technologies.

🏗️ Components, State, Rendering, and Props

This section introduces the fundamental concepts of components, state, rendering, and props in React. It emphasizes the importance of understanding these terms and their relationships to grasp the power and design principles behind React. Mastering these concepts is presented as a prerequisite for creating a basic application like a to-do list.

🪝 Understanding and Creating Custom Hooks

This paragraph delves into the concept of hooks in React, which were introduced to handle lifecycle events and side effects in functional components. It highlights the importance of understanding popular hooks like useState, useEffect, useMemo, useCallback, and useRef, as well as their use cases. Additionally, it encourages creating custom hooks to separate state computation and component rendering, providing examples like fetching data from a backend.

🚦 Prop Drilling, Context API, and Suspense API

This section discusses prop drilling, an anti-pattern in React, and solutions like the Context API and state management tools. It also mentions the Suspense API, which is related to handling asynchronous data fetching. These concepts are presented as standard practices and techniques used in React applications to manage state and improve performance.

🛠️ State Management Tools and Routing

This paragraph focuses on state management tools like Redux, Recoil, and Zustand, which are external libraries used to manage application state more effectively and prevent unnecessary re-renders. It also introduces the concept of routing, which is essential for building single-page applications with multiple pages and handling different URLs.

🎨 Styling in React Applications

This section discusses styling in React applications, mentioning the option of using raw CSS, as well as popular CSS libraries like Tailwind, Material UI, Chakra UI, and Shadcn. It emphasizes the importance of choosing a styling approach and becoming proficient in at least one styling library for creating production-worthy applications.

🛠️ Understanding React Tooling and Build Processes

This paragraph covers the tooling and build processes behind bootstrapping a React application. It introduces concepts like Webpack, Babel, Create React App, and Vite, highlighting their roles in setting up and building React projects. While not essential for beginners, understanding these tools is valuable for interviews and handling specialized use cases like creating Chrome extensions.

🚀 Performance Improvements and Common Libraries

This section discusses performance improvements and common libraries used in React codebases. It covers form management libraries like React Hook Form and Formik, which optimize form handling and prevent unnecessary re-renders. Additionally, it mentions data fetching libraries like SWR and React Query, which provide hooks for fetching data from the backend. The paragraph also briefly touches on testing in front-end projects, acknowledging its importance while acknowledging the author's personal perspective on its practical implementation.

🌐 The Future of React and Next.js

This final paragraph discusses the transition from React to Next.js for building websites. It acknowledges that while React is still a viable option, Next.js is becoming the more popular choice, especially for open-source projects and companies. The author suggests learning Next.js if the goal is to dive into modern codebases, as it builds upon React but introduces its own set of patterns. For mobile app development, the paragraph recommends learning React Native, which has a smoother learning curve for React developers, and exploring tools like Expo.

Keywords

💡DOM

DOM stands for Document Object Model. It is a programming interface for web documents that represents the structure of a web page. In the video, the speaker emphasizes understanding the DOM and how to manipulate it to create dynamic websites before React was introduced. This knowledge helps appreciate the challenges React aimed to solve and why it gained popularity for making front-end development easier.

💡Reconciliation

Reconciliation is the process used by React to determine the most efficient way to update the user interface based on the current state of the application. The speaker suggests understanding reconciliation and how React works under the hood, as it is a key factor in React's performance. This concept allows React to selectively update only the necessary parts of the DOM, making it more efficient than traditional DOM manipulation.

💡Components

Components are reusable building blocks in React that represent a part of the user interface. The speaker highlights the importance of understanding components, state, rendering, and props, which are fundamental concepts in React. Components encapsulate logic and UI elements, making it easier to manage and reuse code across an application.

💡State

State in React refers to the internal data or condition of a component that determines its behavior and rendering. The speaker emphasizes understanding state and how it relates to components and rendering. Managing state effectively is crucial for building dynamic and responsive user interfaces in React applications.

💡Hooks

Hooks are functions introduced in React 16.8 that allow developers to use state and other React features in functional components. The speaker highlights popular hooks like useState, useEffect, useMemo, useCallback, and useRef, which are essential for managing state, side effects, and performance optimizations in functional components.

💡Prop Drilling

Prop drilling is an anti-pattern in React where data is passed down through multiple nested components, making the code harder to maintain and understand. The speaker suggests understanding prop drilling and solutions like the Context API or state management libraries to avoid this problem, especially as applications grow in complexity.

💡State Management

State management refers to the practice of managing and centralizing the state of an application in a structured way. The speaker mentions popular state management libraries like Redux, Recoil, and Zustand, which help manage state more efficiently and prevent issues like prop drilling as applications grow larger and more complex.

💡Routing

Routing in React involves managing the navigation and rendering of different components based on the current URL or route. The speaker highlights the importance of understanding routing libraries like React Router to create dynamic applications with multiple pages or views, as opposed to single-page applications.

💡Styling

Styling in React refers to the process of applying styles and visual designs to components. The speaker mentions popular CSS-in-JS libraries like Tailwind, Material UI, Chakra UI, and Styled Components, which provide a structured and scalable approach to styling React components.

💡Performance Optimization

Performance optimization in React involves techniques and libraries aimed at improving the efficiency and responsiveness of applications. The speaker discusses libraries like React Hook Form, Formik, SWR, and React Query, which optimize form handling, data fetching, and other performance-critical areas of React applications.

Highlights

Understanding the DOM and making dynamic websites is crucial before learning React, as it provides insight into the challenges React solves and why it was widely adopted.

Grasping the concept of reconciliation and how React works under the hood is essential for comprehending its inner workings and performance benefits.

Building a basic React application locally helps understand how React is a wrapper for generating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.

Mastering components, state, rendering, and props is necessary to create basic React applications and understand the framework's core concepts.

Learning hooks, such as useState, useEffect, useMemo, useCallback, and useRef, is vital for working with functional components and managing side effects.

Creating custom hooks allows separating state computation and component rendering, providing better code organization and reusability.

Prop drilling, the context API, and the suspense API are concepts to address state management and performance issues in larger React applications.

State management tools like Redux, Recoil, and Zustand help manage application state and prevent unnecessary re-renders for better performance.

Routing libraries like React Router are essential for building multi-page applications with different URLs and views.

Styling libraries like Tailwind, Material UI, Chakra UI, and Stitches UI are recommended for consistent and production-worthy styling in React applications.

Understanding the tooling behind bootstrapping a React application, such as Webpack, Babel, Create React App, and Vite, is beneficial but optional.

Performance improvements can be achieved using libraries like React Hook Form, Formik for form management, and SWR or React Query for data fetching.

While frontend testing is optional, it's a good practice to learn and can provide benefits in maintaining code quality.

Next.js is becoming the popular choice for writing websites, while React Native is the framework for building mobile apps.

Learning Expo can make it easier to get started with React Native development, especially for beginners.

Transcripts

hi everyone complete react road map this

video is going to cover basically a

bunch of topics that I think is a good

exhaustive list of topics to know if

you're trying to get into react we'll be

covering them in order and the goal is

by the end of it you understand the

topics to learn when you're trying to do

react development Unfortunately today

react isn't enough to write frontend

projects before this video I was trying

to go through a few open source projects

trying to find one that's written in

react couldn't really find a good

company that's using react today most of

them have basically move to next but the

good thing is react is a prerequisite

for next yes so this video basically

considered it as a decent beginner road

map to create front ends the way they

were being created up until 2 years ago

now as I said react is being used uh

sorry next is being used for writing

websites and react native is the thing

that you need to learn if you want to

write mobile apps but a great overview

of how things were done up until 2 years

ago let's get right into it let's begin

with the first point understanding the

Dom and making Dynamic websites at this

point you need to understand what are

Dynamic websites how are they different

from static websites and how up until

react was introduced um it was very hard

to write Dynamic websites um in fact

there were a few Frameworks that I used

to use in college if you've heard of

them I don't know there's one called

jQuery that was fairly famous there's

another one called backbone J that was

the standard way to write not the

standard way but like the only popular

way that made it slightly easy to write

Dynamic websites which was used for the

longest time but then Frameworks like

react or view came into the picture and

and knocked these out of the park and

react became the more popular way to

write websites because it's more

developer friendly compared to these

Frameworks like jQuery to try to write a

basic Dynamic website without using

react preferably you don't even need to

use jQuery or or backbone just write it

in the completely raw way try to

manipulate the Dom and understand what

exactly Dom is the reason this is good

is because you get an intuition as to

what are the challenges or problems that

react fixes why it got adopted so

quickly because you know it made front

end development very easy the reason it

made it very easy was because it's very

hard to do Dynamic websites because of

the way the web is written all right

that's number one number two

understanding reconciliation and how

react actually works under the hood you

have to realize okay react is nothing

but a lot of JavaScript code that makes

it easy for you to write websites the

way they were written until react was

introduced a good analogy here is okay

you today can use chat GPT to write some

react code and under the hood react is

just another way to write the raw HTML

CSS JavaScript code that we've been

writing for years the one that I'm

writing you to write in point1 so the

way chj is an easy way to write react is

an easy way to write HTML CSS and

JavaScript the raw way write HTML CSS

JavaScript the raw way first then once

you're good at it feel free to use react

to write it in a different way once

you're good at react then feel free to

use an AI and make the AI write react

code for you this is the general good

trajectory to follow if you directly go

to an AI and ask it to write code

without learning the thing underneath

it'll basically become a problem very

quickly so keep this in mind and

understand what is reconciliation this

concept that sort of makes react

performant and also like makes it do the

things that it does all right number

three react as a rapper bring some basic

boiler plate react code locally to your

machine look at it try to change it a

little bit maybe create a simple to-do

application or a calculator application

and try to build the application when

you build the application try to look at

the final output that you get and you'll

realize k this final output is just a

bunch of HTML CSS and JavaScript files

only you haven't written a lot of

dynamic JavaScript code that you used to

write react wrote it for you and that's

what the benefit of react is so try to

write a few applications build them and

see the final output make sure you

understand in the end react is nothing

but it's writing my HTML CSS and

JavaScript code for me more specifically

just your JavaScript code this will also

give you a decent idea of how to create

a basic application in react from which

you start to learn some technologies

before you build some bigger projects

but a b basic calculator app is

something that you can build by this

point all right number four components

State rendering and props four Jaron you

need to know of very frontend framework

specific so not just react V also has

the concept of components and state

state and components are one a very

jargon to understand two if you

understand how they're related to each

other and why this distinction was made

between components in state is when

you'll understand the power of react and

you know why it was written The Way It

Was Written so make sure you understand

these four Jons State components

rendering and props at this point you

can create a very basic application

probably create the twoo application

after you understand these four things

you yeah you probably need to know these

four things before you can proceed all

right at this point good checkpoint

create a to-do application and move on

to understanding this thing called hooks

hooks weren't a concept in react for the

longest time front-end Frameworks coding

changes very quickly so react used to be

written a certain way until 20 I don't

know 18 19 and 20 remember and then came

the concept of functional components

which is a popular way to write react

components today if you're dealing with

functional components is when you sort

of have to deal with something called

life cycle events and to tap into these

life cycle events or to get access to

something called side effects you need

something called hooks there are a few

very popular hooks some of you might

have heard of use State use effect use

memo use callback use ref these are the

basic ones that you need to know of

understand a few use cases in these why

they are used why they are popular and

what extra benefit that they provide you

cannot create an application without use

state or use effect you can create

applications without use call back and

use memo but they give you some

performance benefits so it's good to

know all five of these is when you can

proceed to writing your own hooks so

Point number six is create your own set

of custom hooks join a bunch of these

hooks that I told you in the last point

and try to create some hooks of your own

uh they could solve a specific use case

for example a hook to get all the to-dos

for your to-do application or even

better maybe a hook that hits your back

end every 10 seconds and gets you the

latest data on the back end this will

give you an idea of how you can separate

State computation and the final

component rendering very well these

things might make more sense after you

you know start to learn this and and

reach 7 or 6 these things might make a

little more sense after you start to

learn these things these terms might

make a little more sense after you start

to learn react and reach the stage but

at a high level you need to know how to

write your own components and you need

to know how to write your own hooks with

that seventh Point prop drilling context

API and the suspense API um basically

again as time goes by and I add more

points here a lot of these are not

needed but they're standard everyone

uses them and there are good reasons why

they were introduced but you can create

any react application by everything you

know up until this point should you no

you should use all of these things that

I'm going to talk about from here prop

drilling is sort of an anti- pattern SL

a problem in react it's a pretty popular

interview question as well it's

basically you passing down state

component via component and you can get

rid of it by doing State Management

which is going to be the next point or

you can use the raw context API that

react provides you if you use the

context API then you're only inside the

react ecosystem system but if you move

on to the next point which is State

Management then you're also trying to

get rid of this thing called uh prop

drilling even more you're making your

app more and more performant but you are

adding an external library to your

codebase that Library could be Redux if

you've heard of it recoil zo stand there

are a bunch of other popular state

management Frameworks all of these the

goal is the same okay number one as your

application grows you want to manage

your state the thing that I talked about

in point number four you want to manage

your state a little bit better and you

want to prevent a lot of reenders in

your application making it more

performant for that you need an external

Library react does not provide you this

out of the box react does provide you

the context API but the context API is

not enough to make your application more

performant it is enough to get rid of

proper Drilling in your application

though all right Point number eight

State Management tools Point number nine

routing if you're creating a more

Dynamic application your application is

going to have a bunch of pages for

example Facebook has your feed page and

then a messages page and then and your

friends feed so on and so forth all of

these usually have different URLs in the

URL bar and react is what's called a

single page application so it needs to

support you know handling routes and you

know changing the current view based on

the current route that you're on for

that there are a few standard popular

libraries again feel free to pick anyone

and understand how you can create a

basic real application which has

multiple Pages not just one if you've

only created a Todo application or a

calculator application you probably did

not have too many pages but as you

create a real application you will you

know have 100 Pages sometimes so routing

is sort of important and if you open big

code bases you will see all the routing

is done in like a single separate fight

number 10 styling at this point you can

create a bunch of ugly websites you

probably don't want to create them in

production if you're creating a real

website you need to style it very well

you can use raw CSS in react no one's

preventing you from it but usually there

are standard CSS libraries for doing

styling across your application they're

all opinionated in in their own ways um

there's one called Tailwind material UI

and if you want to get into the big

players today there's one called TRX UI

and Shad CN I have a detailed video on

what you should choose in case you're

thinking of creating a production worthy

application tldr is tawi is probably the

right choice feel free to go through

that video but you need to spend a

decent chunk of your time here getting

comfortable with at least one styling

library number 11 this one's sort of

optional but again good to know

understanding the tooling behind

bootstrapping a react application how it

is built what is webpack what is pabble

what is create react tab why it's not

great and then what is weat how it came

into a picture to replace create react

app all of these are tooling these are

things you do once for your application

or if you're you know making a very big

change in your application introducing

something very weird for example if

you're creating a Chrome extension then

you have to worry about these things

usually you just bootstrap your

application and and are good to go but

these are good to know and usually asked

a lot during interviews number 12

performance improvements or some common

libraries that you will see being used

across a lot of code bases because they

give you some extra performance benefits

which are easy to miss if you're you

know writing react code for the first

time the first set of libraries where

you will see this is forms so if you're

creating a form in react it's very easy

to write it in an extremely unperformed

way to fix that a lot of smart people

have written libraries the two popular

ones are react hook forms and formic

high level what happens is if you do

form management yourself anytime you're

changing a form input field you do a r

render and the golden rule of thumb in

react is you have to minimize the number

of R renders so to prevent that you can

either write some really ugly code like

you used to before react was introduced

basically do Dom manipulation or Dom

access yourself or you can use these

libraries like um react hook forms that

pretty much under the hood do the same

thing and you give you a lot of

performance out of the box you don't

have to worry about this performance at

all if I'm being honest you won't notice

it on a website you will notice it in a

mobile app though so if you're going to

eventually use a react native it's good

to get comfortable with these libraries

all mobile projects most mobile projects

will use some Library like this to make

forms more performant else your

application you know will be really slow

right the other set of libraries you'll

see is libraries for fetching data from

the back end um these libraries give you

a lot of hooks which is something we

talked about a few points ago that make

it slightly easy for you to fetch data

from the back end popular ones are s SWR

and react query lastly testing this

one's optional uh if I'm being honest I

I don't see too much point in front end

tests I could totally be wrong and this

could be a controversial take and this

could cancel me but I've seen most open

source projects good projects otherwise

it's very hard for you to you know

maintain a lot of coverage in front end

tests is it a good thing to know

probably I I don't think there's any

downside to learning how to write tests

on a frontend codebase that said I've

mostly seen people being finicky SL you

know very strict when it comes to pack

in tests but people are okay if you

check in a component without writing the

test for it so feel free to pick and

choose whether or not you want to do

this point lastly that's a high level of

the react road map I think if you know

all of this you know 80 85% of what

react has to offer but as I said react

is no longer the popular choice when it

comes to writing websites next J is

slowly becoming that a lot of the react

team has moved over to versel who's the

pent company of next and there are good

reasons for it um so at this point you

can either write react websites on your

own but if you want to dive into open

source projects especially the new ones

like not g projects but like good

companies um you will notice all the

good bses are in next which is frankly

not too hard to pick from this point but

it has its own set of you no aners that

are good to know but a lot of it is just

react code and writing components so not

too hard to learn but at this point you

have to choose whether or not you want

to stay and react uh which is also good

but preferably probably learn nextg and

if you want to write mobile apps then

learn um react native it's very easy to

learn react native if you know react um

that said mobile is hard uh so you will

face a bunch of challenges when you make

this transition it's also good to know a

little bit you know how Android

development and iOS development actually

works under the hood and how react

native is just you know a rapper on top

of native there's something called Expo

that makes it slightly easy for you to

write react native code initially at

least and probably maybe even forever so

look into that in case you're thinking

of writing mobile apps and and don't

write them in raw react native at least

initially that's high level of the react

road map I think I've covered everything

maybe a little bit more of what's being

covered in the code as well so feel free

to learn it from any resource I think

I've covered all the Top If you like

such videos let me know if there's a

specific niche in which you want me to

make such a video let me know that as

well I'm happy to do that with that

let's end it I'll see you guys in the

next one

bye-bye