React API Calls: Understanding the Lifecycle

A lot of developers get confused between controlled and uncontrolled inputs in React — the difference is small, but it changes everything. 🔹 Controlled Inputs Here, React controls the input using state (useState). Every change goes through React, which makes validation, real-time updates, and data handling much easier. 🔹 Uncontrolled Inputs Here, the DOM manages the input state. You access the value using useRef only when needed, which can be useful in simpler or less interactive scenarios. 📌 The difference is just about who controls the data — React or the DOM. But this small difference impacts how you handle validation, performance, and overall form behavior in real-world applications. Understanding this properly makes form handling much more predictable and scalable. #ReactJS #FrontendDevelopment #JavaScript #MERNStack #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #FullStackDeveloper #LearningInPublic #CodingJourney #DevelopersLife

⚛️ A Small React Technique That Can Improve Performance – Debouncing While building a React search feature, I noticed something interesting. Every time a user typed a letter, the application was making an API request immediately. That means if someone typed “React”, the API was called *5 times*. This is where *debouncing* becomes very useful. 💡 Debouncing delays the function execution until the user *stops typing for a short time*. This helps to: ⚡ Reduce unnecessary API calls 🚀 Improve application performance 😊 Provide a smoother user experience Small optimizations like this make a *big difference in real-world applications*. Sometimes improving performance is not about writing more code — it’s about writing *smarter code*. #ReactJS #JavaScript #FrontendDeveloper #WebDevelopment #Performance

💡 React Tip: Use Custom Hooks to Reuse Logic One pattern I use frequently in React projects is custom hooks. Instead of repeating API logic across components, I move it into a reusable hook. Example 👇 function useFetch(url) { const [data, setData] = useState(null); useEffect(() => { fetch(url) .then(res => res.json()) .then(setData); }, [url]); return data; } Usage: const users = useFetch("/api/users"); Benefits: • Cleaner components • Reusable logic • Easier testing Custom hooks are one of the most powerful patterns in React. What’s your favourite custom hook? #ReactJS #FrontendDevelopment #JavaScript

Most developers don’t misunderstand JavaScript. They misunderstand time. . Take setTimeout vs setImmediate. On the surface, they look interchangeable. “Just run this later,” right? That’s the lie. Here’s the reality: setTimeout(fn, 0) → runs after the current call stack + timers phase setImmediate(fn) → runs in the check phase, right after I/O So under load or inside I/O cycles… they don’t behave the same at all. Example: You’re handling a heavy I/O operation (like reading a file or API response). setTimeout → might delay execution unpredictably setImmediate → executes right after the I/O completes One is scheduled. The other is strategically placed in the event loop. That difference? It’s the kind that causes race conditions no one can reproduce. Most people write async code. Very few understand when it actually runs. And that’s where bugs live. #JavaScript #NodeJS #Async #SoftwareEngineering #Backend

Mastering React JS starts with strong fundamentals 🚀 Before jumping into advanced concepts, every developer should clearly understand these core basics: 🔹 Components (Functional & Class) The building blocks of any React application. Everything in React is a component. 🔹 JSX (JavaScript XML) Allows you to write HTML-like code inside JavaScript, making UI development more intuitive. 🔹 Props (Passing Data) Used to pass data from one component to another — enabling reusability and clean architecture. 🔹 State (Managing Data) Handles dynamic data inside components and controls how the UI updates. 💡 Key Insight: A strong understanding of these fundamentals makes learning advanced topics like Hooks, State Management, and Performance Optimization much easier. 📌 Don’t rush into advanced React — build a solid foundation first. What concept helped you understand React better? 👇 #ReactJS #FrontendDevelopment #WebDevelopment #JavaScript #SoftwareEngineering

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗪𝗶𝗻, 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁.𝗷𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗼𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗮 Today I was working on an email navigation feature, the kind where you click through a list and the URL updates to reflect the selected item. The data was already fetched. No need to reload the page. I just wanted to update the URL silently. Simple, right? 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁 (𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗷𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘀): window.history.replaceState(null, '', newPath); Didn't work. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱: window.history.replaceState( { ...window.history.state, as: newPath, url: newPath }, '', newPath, ); 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Sometimes the fix is one line. Finding that one line? That's the real work.😆 #NextJs #WebDevelopment #Frontend #JavaScript #React #TIL #SoftwareEngineering

⚡ Part 6 of 10: React performance conversations often start too early. Someone sees a rerender and immediately reaches for memoization. But sometimes the real issue is simpler than that. Bad state shape. Too much work inside render. Unclear data flow. A component tree that grew without much intention. I’m not against optimization. I just think the better starting point is: What actually feels slow? Where’s the bottleneck? What problem are we solving? A lot of React code gets more complicated in the name of performance without actually getting better. Have you ever seen “performance optimization” make a codebase worse? #React #ReactPerformance #FrontendPerformance #JavaScript #TypeScript #SoftwareEngineering #WebPerformance

Can you cancel a Promise in JavaScript? Short answer: No — but you can cancel the work behind it. A Promise is just a result container, not the async operation itself. Once created, it will resolve or reject — you can’t “stop” it directly. What you can do instead: • Use AbortController → cancels APIs like fetch • Use cancellation flags/tokens → for custom async logic • Clear timers → if work is scheduled (setTimeout) • Ignore results → soft cancel pattern Real-world takeaway: Design your async code to be cancel-aware, not Promise-dependent. This is exactly how modern tools like React Query handle requests under the hood. #JavaScript #Frontend #AsyncProgramming #WebDevelopment #ReactJS #CleanCode

🚀 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝗲.𝗷𝘀 𝘃𝘀. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀.𝗷𝘀 — 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲! A common question for those starting with backend development: "Should I use Node or Express?" The truth is, it’s not an "Either/Or"—it’s an "And." 👉 The Engine vs. The Toolkit 🛠️ 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝗲.𝗷𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 It’s the JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 engine. It allows you to run JavaScript outside the browser. Think of it as the powerhouse that handles your server-side logic. 🧰 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀.𝗷𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝗸𝗶𝘁 It’s a minimal and flexible framework built on top of Node.js. It simplifies things like routing, middleware, and handling HTTP requests. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿: While you can build a server using just Node.js (with the http module), it requires a lot of manual code. Express turns 50 lines of "pure" Node code into 5 lines of readable, maintainable logic. 𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲: In 2026, efficiency is everything. Unless you are building something extremely low-level, Express (or similar frameworks like Fastify) is the standard for getting high-performance APIs into production quickly. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴/𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄? 𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄! 👇 #NodeJS #ExpressJS #BackendDevelopment #JavaScript #WebDevelopment #Coding #SoftwareEngineering #TechInsights