The Beginner's Guide to React

React got that name for a reason. It’s a component-based JavaScript library that renders smartly and can seriously simplify your work.

This course is for React newbies and anyone looking to build a solid foundation. It’s designed to teach you everything you need to start building web applications in React right away.

Each lesson in this 28-part course is a single index.html file. This keeps your focus on learning React, with no distractions. We’ll start with a blank file and add more complexity as we go along, wrapping the course with a lesson on how to move into a more production-ready development environment—and even deploy your app to a great service like Netlify.

You’ll build a solid understanding so when you come across JavaScript challenges down the road, you’ll know how to…react.

Thousands of people have used this course as an introduction to the core concepts of React. It's been reviewed and updated and is relevant and valid. There isn't a better introduction to React online.

1. A Beginners Guide to React Introduction
2. Create a User Interface with Vanilla JavaScript and DOM
3. Create a User Interface with React’s createElement API
4. Create a User Interface with React’s JSX syntax
5. Use JSX effectively with React
6. Render two elements side-by-side with React Fragments
7. Create a Simple Reusable React Component
8. Validate Custom React Component Props with PropTypes
9. Understand and Use Interpolation in JSX
10. Rerender a React Application
11. Style React Components with className and inline Styles
12. Use Event Handlers with React
13. Manage state in a React Component with the useState hook
14. Manage side-effects in a React Component with the useEffect hook
15. Use a lazy initializer with useState
16. Manage the useEffect dependency array
17. Create reusable custom hooks
18. Manipulate the DOM with React refs
19. Understand the React Hook Flow
20. Make Basic Forms with React
21. Make Dynamic Forms with React
22. Controlling Form Values with React
23. Using React Error Boundaries to handle errors in React Components
24. Use the key prop when Rendering a List with React
25. Lifting and colocating React State
26. Make HTTP Requests with React
27. Handle HTTP Errors with React
28. Install and use React DevTools
29. Build and deploy a React Application with Codesandbox, GitHub, and Netlify
30. A Beginners Guide to React Outro