How to Learn React Fast in 2024: A Beginner's Guide
Summary
TLDRThis video outlines the six essential skills you must master to become a React developer and secure a frontend developer role. The presenter emphasizes the importance of learning class-based components, JavaScript data transformation, context usage, routing, custom hooks, and making API calls. Additionally, a bonus test is provided to evaluate your React skills, focusing on timers and hooks. The video encourages active learning, self-research, and practical coding tests to solidify knowledge, while also offering mentorship and interview preparation services for aspiring developers.
Takeaways
- 😀 Learning class-based components is essential, even though hooks are more popular today. You may encounter older codebases that use classes.
- 📚 Understanding classes will help you grasp hooks better, as they provide a contrast for understanding how hooks improve upon them.
- 🍳 Mastering JavaScript data transformation is key. Combining and transforming data (like in a to-do app or Facebook post) is a core skill.
- 🔑 Learning how to use React Context properly is important. It is commonly used for data storage but has other significant use cases as well.
- 🌐 Routing is essential for React developers. Learn React Router before moving to Next.js, focusing on dynamic routes and route protection.
- 🔧 Custom hooks are crucial for optimizing React code. Knowing when and how to create them can improve your development workflow.
- 📡 Understanding how to make API calls is mandatory. Learn how to fetch and manipulate external data using HTTP verbs and status codes.
- 🕹️ Testing your knowledge of timers, hooks, and base React APIs with a reaction time app is a good way to measure your proficiency.
- 🎯 Interview preparation is crucial. Practice interviews regularly to improve your chances of landing a front-end development job.
- 🚀 Reaction time tests can be used to challenge your React knowledge, particularly with timers, hooks, and handling custom hooks.
Q & A
Why is it important to learn class-based components in React, even though hooks are more commonly used?
-Class-based components are important to learn because many older codebases still use them. Some companies have not adopted newer technologies like hooks, so understanding classes ensures you can work on legacy code. Additionally, learning classes helps provide a better understanding of how hooks work, allowing for a stronger grasp of React as a whole.
What is data transformation in the context of frontend development?
-Data transformation involves taking raw data and modifying it into a format suitable for display or further use. For example, filtering and sorting data in a to-do list app based on user input, or transforming a list of comments into a count of total comments. It is a crucial skill for frontend developers, as many applications require manipulating data before presenting it to users.
What are some practical applications of React context, and when should it not be used?
-React context is often used for passing data like global state without prop drilling, but it's not limited to that. Developers should understand how to use it for other purposes like theming or managing authentication. However, it should not be used for every situation, especially when simpler state management techniques would be more efficient.
Why is it recommended to learn routing in React before jumping into Next.js?
-Learning routing with plain React and libraries like React Router helps developers understand the core concepts of routing, such as creating dynamic routes and protecting them. This foundational knowledge is useful before adopting Next.js, which has its own built-in routing mechanisms. Starting with plain React gives a deeper understanding of routing's workings.
What are custom hooks, and why are they important for a React developer?
-Custom hooks allow developers to reuse logic across different components in a React application. They are a crucial concept because they help encapsulate complex logic, making the code more modular and maintainable. Knowing when and how to create custom hooks can greatly improve the efficiency and structure of a React codebase.
Why should React developers understand API calls, and what are some key concepts they should know?
-React developers need to understand API calls because almost all applications rely on external data from servers. Knowing how to make HTTP requests, handle responses, and manage errors is essential. Developers should also understand the most common HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and status codes (200, 404, 500) for effective API integration.
What is the purpose of the F1 reaction test mentioned in the script?
-The F1 reaction test is a mock coding exercise that challenges developers to build a timer-based application. This test helps assess the developer's understanding of hooks, timers, and React's API. Passing this test indicates a strong grasp of React's core concepts and the ability to apply them in a practical scenario.
How does learning both class-based components and hooks benefit a React developer?
-Learning both class-based components and hooks provides a well-rounded understanding of React. While hooks are the more modern approach, class-based components are still found in many existing projects. Understanding both allows developers to work on a wider variety of codebases and makes it easier to grasp the underlying principles of React's component architecture.
What is passive learning, and why does the speaker encourage doing personal research?
-Passive learning is when someone absorbs information without actively engaging in the material, such as listening to a tutorial. The speaker encourages personal research because active learning, where you investigate and explore concepts on your own, leads to better retention and deeper understanding of the material.
What does the speaker mean by 'data transformation' in the context of a to-do app?
-In a to-do app, 'data transformation' refers to operations like filtering the list based on user input and sorting tasks by certain criteria. For example, a user typing into a search bar to filter tasks is transforming the raw list of to-dos into a more refined dataset. This concept helps developers manage and display data dynamically based on user interactions.
Outlines
🚀 Mastering the Six Essentials of React Development
The speaker introduces the six essential skills required to become a proficient React developer and secure a frontend developer job. The first of these essentials is learning class-based components, which many believe are outdated but still relevant in legacy projects. Understanding classes also helps in grasping the differences between them and hooks. The speaker emphasizes the importance of trying both to appreciate the benefits of hooks.
💡 Understanding JavaScript and Data Transformation
Mastering JavaScript, specifically data transformation, is crucial for becoming a strong frontend developer. The speaker uses a cooking analogy to explain how data can be transformed to create more complex outputs. The importance of combining, filtering, and transforming data, as seen in common applications like to-do lists, is highlighted as essential knowledge for a React developer.
💻 The Value of Context, Routing, and Custom Hooks in React
The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding React Context and routing. While many use Context for data storage, it's vital to explore its other use cases. Additionally, mastering routing is crucial, starting with basic React before advancing to frameworks like Next.js. The speaker also stresses the significance of creating custom hooks, providing an example of their utility in developing real-world applications like a CRM.
🌐 Making API Calls and Understanding HTTP Basics
The speaker discusses the importance of knowing how to make API calls and interact with servers, as most applications rely on external data. Understanding HTTP methods and status codes is essential for efficiently pulling data, displaying it, and enabling users to interact with it. The speaker encourages further research into these concepts for a deeper understanding.
🧪 Bonus Challenge: Testing Your React Knowledge
As a bonus, the speaker introduces a test to assess React skills, encouraging viewers to try an F1 reaction test that involves creating a small app. This test challenges developers to use hooks, timers, and custom hooks, and passing it signifies a solid understanding of React fundamentals. The speaker mentions that only one out of 20 people has passed this test, showcasing its difficulty.
🎯 Wrapping Up with Opportunities for Mentorship
The speaker concludes by promoting their mentorship program, which includes weekly mock interviews to help developers practice their interview skills. They also offer additional resources, such as a roadmap for frontend applications, which can be accessed for free. The speaker encourages viewers to apply for mentorship to accelerate their career change into remote frontend development.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Class-based components
💡Hooks
💡Data transformation
💡Context
💡Routing
💡Custom Hooks
💡API calls
💡HTTP status codes
💡Passive learning
💡Mock interviews
Highlights
To be considered a React developer, mastering six key areas is mandatory.
Class-based components are still relevant, especially for legacy codebases, despite the current preference for hooks.
Learning classes helps you better understand hooks by giving context on how React evolved.
Understanding JavaScript data transformation is essential for handling complex data manipulation in React apps.
Transforming data, like sorting and filtering lists, is a common requirement in front-end development.
Mastering React Context is crucial, not just for data storage, but for more advanced use cases.
Understanding routing is fundamental for building dynamic applications with protected and dynamic routes.
Creating custom hooks is essential for code reuse and handling complex logic in React.
API calls are fundamental to any React application, allowing you to fetch and manipulate data from external sources.
Familiarize yourself with HTTP verbs and status codes (e.g., 200, 404, 500) to handle API requests effectively.
The F1 reaction test is a bonus challenge that evaluates your proficiency with hooks, timers, and React’s base API.
Only one out of 20 students has passed the F1 reaction test, highlighting its difficulty.
Practicing mock interviews weekly is a core part of preparation, as interviewing is a skill that requires continuous practice.
The speaker offers a mentorship program designed to accelerate career transitions into front-end development.
The speaker provides a free roadmap of applications that was previously sold for $50.
Transcripts
so there are six things that you need to
master if you want to call yourself a
react developer and if you want to get a
frontend developer job and these six
things are absolutely mandatory I will
not consider you a react developer if
you don't know these six things and I'm
going to give you at the end a bonus uh
a quick test that's going to show how
good of a react developer are you okay
so the first thing that you need to know
or like the yeah the first that you need
to know are classes right the the the
class-based component architecture and I
know a lot of people are saying hey you
shouldn't learn classes you should learn
hooks probably most people don't even
mention classes anymore in their courses
in their tutorials and that's absolutely
insane in my opinion uh people say that
classes are outdated and in
uh in a way they are right nobody is
really using classes anymore but there
are a few exceptions so the reason why
you should learn classes is because you
might get a job sorry the fly is here
you might get a job where uh the code
they wrote was I don't know in 2016 2017
2018
2019 and believe it or not companies are
not jumping on the hype of a new
technology right away so even though you
are learning I don't know nextjs right
now people might still use react like uh
uh react created with create react up
which used to be the de facto uh way of
creating an application a few years ago
okay so you might jump into that and if
you don't know how to use classes you'll
be having a bit of a trouble okay also
classes will help you understand hooks
way better because all all the time
people are saying hooks are way better
than classes right or like hooks are so
good or like hooks are so easy to
understand easy to understand compare
with what because if I say hey do you
like pizza you'll say yeah but if you
never tried a burger would you be able
to choose between a pizza and a burger
no it's impossible so you have to try
both to understand if you like pizzas or
more or in this case to understand why
all the hype is about pizza so learn
about classes they will help you out
massively and there are a few things
that classes help you out uh with that
hooks are not I'm not going to get into
it right now because you should do your
own research because if you do your own
research that's when you're actually
learning right so right now you are
doing something called passive learning
I'm spitting stuff at you and you are
just taking it in hopefully but if you
do your own research that's when you
actually internalize information and I
recommend you uh to do that okay now the
next thing that you need to know as a
react developer is not even a reacting
is Javascript and most specifically you
should understand data transformation so
what do I mean by that imagine you have
uh a few ingredients in your fridge and
you want to cook a breakfast right you
want to prepare a breakfast for yourself
and for your girlfriend or for your
boyfriend or whatever you have okay well
what I've seen most of the time in
regular programming courses and uh in
most Juniors portfolios is that they
take an egg they boil the egg and they
they eat the egg okay they never even
bother thinking about maybe I could fry
the egg a little bit in um I don't know
in a butter then I can add some bacon
maybe I can add some chopped onions and
then I can have salad made of tomatoes
and cucumbers and feta cheese right so
what have I done there I have combined
certain ingredients to create a more
rounded dish if that makes sense and it
actually works in a similar way in
programming most of the time what you'll
see is a lot of data combin to create a
different type of data um for example
when you are on Facebook and you see
that a post has I don't know 300
comments well that number was created by
reducing the total amount of comments
and replies into a number so there are
not different data entities it's just
one big data structure cooked into one
number okay that was a data
transformation there are so many other
examples like for
example take a shot for every single
time I say example for example you could
have a to-do app and then a filter at
the top right so as you type in
something in the to-do app then the list
becomes sper because it's going to match
whatever you typed in the filter that's
a data transformation and then you can
have another I don't know maybe a drop
down that sorts the data so you filter
the data you sort the data and then you
display it and you give it to the user
okay so that's data transformation and
you should know that I can guarantee you
that's going to make you a strong front
end developer and uh is going to help
you create more interesting applications
which in fact or in turn will get you
paid okay cuz that's why we are doing
this to get paid not to have fun there
are other things that are way more fun
than writing code trust me okay but to
get to do those fun things you need to
learn how to code or go Plum the next
thing that you need to learn is context
and how to use it and when not to use it
I'm not going to get too much into this
because it's so simple and uh yet so
complex um you need to
understand cuz most people use context
to store data right but that's not the
only use case for uh context it's it's a
good use case for uh using context but
it's not the only use case so I would
highly recommend it to get into like the
Integrity of how context works and
whatnot
again I'm not going to get into this
right now because uh this video is going
to get too long then the next thing that
you need to learn is routing um I
recommend people to start uh their react
journey by not using nextg and using the
plain react maybe with react router
doome um and trying to understand how
routing works and how to create Dynamic
routes and whatnot or how to protect
certain routes from um from Intruders
that's going to help you out as well
because every application that you see
online has some sort of routing pretty
much all websites have some sort of
routing you need to understand this
concept then the next thing is to
understand Uh custom hooks so in the
beginning I told you that classes are
important you should know those um and
then I told you that you know people say
that hooks are better than classes I
agree to a certain extent uh but then
you should also learn how to create your
own custom hooks so I'm building my own
CRM right now an ass SAS
application where I track everything
that's happening inside the business and
oh my I'm I'm creating so many custom
hooks it's unbelievable this is such a
useful concept and you as a front end
developer uh as a react developer you
should absolutely know how to create
custom Hooks and you should know when to
create a custom hook and you should know
when not to create a custom hook that's
my opinion um then API calls you should
learn how to make API call because you
need to learn how to pull data from
outside and that's going to be very
beneficial because pretty much all apps
rely on a server an API that's going to
give you the data and you as a from the
developer will pull that data display
that data and let the user interact with
the data create new data etc etc so this
is an absolutely mandatory thing you
should know the most popular HTTP verbs
you should know the most popular HTTP
status codes like 500 200 40 for 403 uh
again I'm giving you ideas and I want
you to go ahead and research these
things on your own so you can actually
understand uh uh how those Concepts come
together okay now as a bonus I promised
you a bonus this is a test I give to all
my students because we do mock
interviews uh every week uh because I
believe that interviewing is a skill
that you need to practice it I don't
know how most aspiring developers are
are trying to wink the interview part of
the process of getting a job but we do
that every week so if you join my
program PL plug intended uh Shameless
plug uh you are going to get one
interview per week or you're going to
attend one interview prep a week you can
watch me interview other people and then
you can learn how an interview actually
works or how it looks how it feels etc
etc so you can get used to it whenever
you are going to have have an interview
but besides that I want you to go on
Google and type in F1 reaction
test and the first result should be f1st
start.
glitch.me and that's a very simple
application that simulates uh your
reaction time so let me
just basically I press start I need to
wait for the lights to go
out ah and now I have a jump start so
now I need to reset
so that's my reaction time so this silly
game wait this silly game that you see
here might look very simple yet childish
but this is going to test your knowledge
of timers of hooks of custom
hooks uh and we will see how good you
are uh using the base API of react so
far from what I remember I gave this
test to like 20 people only one person
managed to pass it okay that's how hard
it is but if you take this test and if
you can pass it if you can build this
app that means you
really understand how react works okay
all the other stuff that I mentioned are
important but this is going to be the
big test which which is going to show
you what you are made of all right so I
hope this video helps if you want me to
help you make this career change as fast
as possible so you can work remote as a
front end developer then apply for my
mentorship that's the first link in the
description if you want to check out the
program before you join that's the
second link in the description and if
you want my road map of applications
that I used to sell for 50 bucks you can
get it now for free by clicking the
third link in the description
so with that out of the way I wish you a
great day bye
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