GETTING STARTED WITH REACT

React isn’t just another front-end library — it’s a new way of thinking about building user interfaces. Instead of manually manipulating the DOM, React invites you to think in components — small, reusable building blocks that together make up the whole of your app. In this journey, you’ll learn not just how to code React apps, but how to think in React: breaking problems down into composable parts, managing state predictably, and designing clean, maintainable interfaces that scale.

Before any great builder starts constructing skyscrapers, they first understand their tools, workspace, and blueprints. That’s exactly what Part 0 does — it gets you in the React mindset. We’ll start by answering the golden questions: What is React? Why was it built? Where does it run? How does it think? You’ll understand that React is not about pages — it’s about components that manage their own data and render dynamically when things change.

This is where React truly begins. You’ll discover JSX — the “HTML with superpowers” that lets you mix logic and UI seamlessly. We’ll then move on to components, the reusable Lego bricks of React. You’ll learn to pass information between them using props, and let components remember things over time using state.

Hooks changed React forever. In this part, you’ll meet useState, useEffect, useRef, useMemo, and useCallback — the beating heart of modern React. You’ll see how these small functions manage big ideas like reactivity, lifecycle management, and performance optimization.

Once you’ve mastered components and hooks, you’ll start seeing patterns emerge. This part teaches you how to think like an app architect. You’ll use Context to pass data across components without drilling props, and you’ll meet useReducer, which introduces a structured way to manage complex state.

React is built on modern JavaScript features (ES6+). To be comfortable, you need to master a few recurring concepts. You don’t need to be a JS guru  just fluent in these key patterns. This lesson shows you the modern syntax React expects and why it makes your code cleaner.