React Essentials

Build modern, dynamic web applications with confidence using the industry's most popular JavaScript library.

Hours

Intermediate

  Last Updated
October 2025

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This course includes:

  • Access to private discord community
  • lessons, videos, code-alongs, exercises, solutions, projects, and more
  • Unlimited access to all courses, webinars, office hours and resources

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Prerequisites:

No previous experience in programming is needed! We'll guide you through everything you need to know.

Overview

Curriculum

Mentor

FAQs

What we'll cover...

  • Create, build, and distribute React applications using Vite
  • Handle form input with state, refs, and validation
  • Create functional components using props, events, conditional rendering, and collections
  • Implement multi-component navigation, share data with the context hook, and use effects for HTTP requests
  • Build your own custom hooks
  • Understand when to use memoization techniques
  • The difference between C# and .NET
  • Branching and Looping Statements
  • Installing and configuring your tools
  • Arrays
  • Declaring and using variables
  • Debugging Basics

A Practical Approach to Building SPA Applications

For developers already familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript fundamentals, this course takes you from "Hello World" to building API-backed, client-side applications using React version 19.

Practical, Not Academic
Every concept is taught in the context of building real components and solving real problems. Dozens of examples, videos, and practical exercises.

Build a Foundation with Less Struggle
From your first component to complex state management, routing, and performance optimization, this course has everything you need in one structured path.

Framework Agnostic
The React ecosystem has hundreds of component libraries, state management tools, animation frameworks, data fetching solutions, and more. By mastering the core fundamentals in this course, you will be able to learn and effectively use any of them!

What You'll Build
You'll build real components and applications throughout the course including: interactive weather cards, form-driven calculators and validation systems, product inventory management with filtering, a movie management application backed by an API, and a complete conference session management application.

React Powers the Web You Use Every Day
Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, and thousands of other companies rely on React to build their user interfaces.

Ready to Learn the Most
Popular Client-Side Framework?

Start building with React
 today!

Curriculum Outline

Master the Basics 
Build once, reuse everywhere. React's component model makes complex UIs manageable and maintainable.

Module 1: Getting Started

  • Install your tools, understand what React is, what problems it solves, and how to create and run your first application.
  • Welcome Message
  • Setting Up Your Environment
  • Introducing React
  • Hello, React Walkthrough

Module 2: The Basics

  • Covers the fundamentals of basic component design. This includes how to create components, work with assets like images and CSS files, use props to inject and bind data, define and respond to events (e.g., clicks), track the state of key data items that should update the component output, conditionally render output, and work with collections of data.
  • Our First Component
  • Exercise: Welcome Component
  • Introducing Props
  • Working with CSS Assets
  • Exercise: Weather Card Component
  • Introducing State
  • Exercise: Area Calculator
  • Conditional Rendering
  • Rendering Collections
  • Exercise: Weather Cards Extended
  • Exercise: Product Stock Component
  • Exercise: Tip Calculator

Module 3: Intermediate Concepts

  • Learn to work with forms, refs, effects. Create custom hooks and call HTTP APIs from components.
  • Using State with Forms
  • Example: Rich State Form
  • The useRef Hook
  • Exercise: Hotel Search Form
  • Lifting State
  • The useEffect Hook
  • Activity: Building a Modal Component
  • HTTP Requests using the Fetch API
  • Custom Hooks
  • Exercise: Movie API

Module 4: Routing, Context, and Memoization

  • Create larger apps with navigation using React Router. Share data across the component hierarchy with context, and memoize functions and values to increase performance.
  • Routing Basics
  • Routing with Query Strings
  • The useContext Hook
  • Memoization Hooks

Module 5: Capstone

  • Bring it all together by creating a client-side application to view and administrate the sessions at a conference.
  • Capstone: Session Manager
  • Next Steps

How We Build Developers

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Written Lessons That Actually Make Sense

Our written content explains complex concepts in plain English, with real examples you can quickly apply. You'll understand not just what to do, but why pros make the decisions we do.

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Hands-On Practice That Builds Confidence

Every concept comes with code samples and exercises. You can't learn to play guitar without putting your fingers on the strings and you can't learn to code without writing a lot of code!
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Videos That Show, Don't Just Tell

You'll see how professional developers think, debug, and refactor code. These aren't just lectures, but applied theory. See concepts actually used together!
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Rigorous Capstone Projects That Prove Your Skills

You'll build substantial applications that demonstrate your ability to architect solutions, handle complexity, and deliver professional-quality code.

Join developers who chose...

depth over speed,
understanding over memorization, and 
professional skills over participation certificates.

Frequently asked questions

Who is this course for?

This course assumes that you understand HTML, CSS, and JavaScript fundamentals. If you don't, check out our HTML, CSS, and JavaScript course!

Is React difficult to learn?

There are some fundamental concepts that can be tricky if you have not built client-side applications before. That's why we built dozens of code samples with detailed explainations of what is happening and why.

What if I get stuck?

Getting stuck is a normal part of the learning process. To become a skilled developer you must retrain how your brain approaches problems. Whenever you get stuck, pop into the Discord community where a Skill Foundry mentor will answer all of your questions!

Can I use AI tools?

We recommend that you avoid using AI tools until you master the fundamentals. AI is not skilled enough to write all of the code in professional environments, but it is quite capable of doing the fundamentals like those in this course. If you use AI to skip the fundamentals, eventually you will get stuck and be unable to advance to more complex skills.

Also, you won't get to use AI in a technical interview, so if your goal is a job, you must be able to code without using AI tools!

Don't worry! When you master the fundamentals, using AI tools later isn't difficult, because your understanding will enable you to write detailed, technical prompts.

About the Author

Eric Wise

Software Architect | Mentor | Entrepreneur
Eric is a veteran software architect, multi-time tech entrepreneur, and someone who's been in every corner of the industry from tech start ups, big corporations, and freelancing.
But what makes Eric truly special is his legendary ability to explain complex concepts in ways that actually stick.

Forge your Future. Learn to Code.

You can’t fast-forward time, but you can stop wasting it.

Join now and start making real progress.

Start today.

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Monthly Plan

$75/month

  • Full access to all courses and learning paths
  • Learn at your own pace. No deadlines or pressure
  •  Regular content updates and new project releases
  • Access to our supportive Discord community
  • Help from the Skill Foundry team when you need it

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Annual Plan

$600/year

  • All monthly plan benefits
  • Access 24/7 to all courses and updates