7+ Tips to Learn React.js Quickly

5 min readJan 26, 2022

Over the years, React.js has grown to become the most popular JavaScript framework out there. Today it’s being used by the sites like Instagram, Facebook, and the New York Times.

For your information, React is a JavaScript library/framework that is widely used to build user interfaces (UI). It offers a component-based approach and thus, enables you to write better code with more flexibility.

React is fun, fast, and easy to learn and can be used to build everything ranging from a simple blog to a complex social app. It makes UI rendering easier, stable, and faster compared to other frameworks-and that’s probably why it became so famous in a very short time.

And, with a lot of buzz around the technology, people wonder how to learn React.js quickly and start building projects. Yes, if you’re not familiar with the workings of a component-based framework, getting started to learn ReactJS can be challenging at first.

Learning how to write React code takes time, but the following expert tips will definitely make the process of learning React a lot easier. Let’s get started with it then…

Tips to Quickly Learn React

Followings are some tips from experts that will help you learn React quickly:

1. Learn the basics — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Learning React is like flying a plane — it’s difficult or even impossible if you don’t know the basics.

Before getting started directly with React, it’s recommended that you should learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript first. It makes the process of learning React.js easier. and also, a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are essential parts of front-end development.

GeeksforGeeks explains it in an interesting way:

HTML is like the structure or the skeleton of the body
CSS defines the style and is like the skin or flesh of the body, and
JavaScript is like the brain that functions all the body parts

2. Learn some more JavaScript and ES6

JavaScript is the backbone of React.js, you will have to learn it before you get started. Why? Because React is a JavaScript framework you have to have a working knowledge of JS to understand the framework better.

However, some people directly start learning React.js without knowing anything about JavaScript. It’s a bit difficult that way but not impossible.

ES6 or ECMAScript 6, is the latest update to JavaScript that is a standardized set of new features for the language. And, it is highly recommended to learn ES6 before starting to learn React.

But why? Because

The syntax of ES6 is quite similar to that of React.js
ES6 is required to use Babel (to compile JSX, the templating language of React)
ES6 is already being widely adopted by the communities and companies

However, ES6 is still not fully supported by every web browser but it’s gaining traction and you should learn it because you’re preparing for the future, right?

3. Use `create-react-app` as a beginner

create-react-app is a tool that gives you the ability to create a React app in no time without all the hassles of configuring tools, Babel, Webpack, CSS, HMR, ESLint, etc.

Facebook created create-react-app that works on Windows, Linux, and macOS as well. If you use the tool, you don't have to install and configure the tools like Webpack and Babel. These tools are preconfigured and you can only focus on the code as a beginner.

To install create-react-app globally, you can use the simple command npm install -g create-react-app and quickly get started. You can find more details in this Github repo.

4. Get comfortable with Node.js and code editors

React is a JavaScript framework, and Node.js is the execution or runtime environment for JavaScript. So, no matter what you’re creating with React.js, you will need to know the basics of Node.js.

Node.js is the technology that will allow you to build server-side applications using React.

Also, you should be comfortable with various code editors. However, you have the freedom to choose the one that works the best for you, there is no problem there. Some of the popular code editors are:

Visual Studio Code
ATOM
Sublime Text, etc.

5. Use the React Developer Tools Chrome extension

React Developer Tools Chrome extension helps you debug complex UI elements like the navigation menu. It makes the debugging process much easier by giving you a ton of useful information about what’s happening in your application.

The extension also helps you get the component hierarchies, subscribe to component state changes, view the props and state values of your components, and so on.

Also read: Career Opportunities in JavaScript

6. Use existing data and APIs

First, start by creating a simple React app that uses existing data and APIs and then learn to analyze the code and debug it. If you try to do everything from scratch, you will probably get overwhelmed and start feeling like quitting.

Here are some resources for you to get a sample and existing data and APIs:

7. Focus on the one framework

There are a lot of JavaScript frameworks that you may feel attracted to while learning React. But our recommendation is, to stay away from any other frameworks.

As a beginner, people think that they can learn everything and that results in burnout in the long run.

So, if you’re learning React, learn React.

8. Go through some good tutorial

While you can totally learn ReactJS by going through the official documentation, it’s boring. We recommend opting for a good video course to start learning the tech.

NextStacks has an excellent ReactJS tutorial that hundreds of students have already enrolled in. You too can enroll in and start creating simple as well as complex React apps.

⚡ Start learning ReactJS

Final words

While these are not the only tips that you will need, we hope these tips will definitely help you along your path to learning React.js.

We wish you all the best and hope you will soon be on the way to making interesting React apps of your own.

If you have a related query, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

Also, kindly share the article with your friends who you think are learning React or planning to learn.

Originally published at https://blog.nextstacks.com on January 26, 2022.