Why is my API call running again and again?

🚨 Why is my API call running again and again? This happened to me recently while working on a React dashboard. I had a simple useEffect that fetched user data when the component mounted: useEffect(() => { fetchUserData(); }, [user]); Looked innocent, right? But every time something updated in the app — this effect ran again, triggering multiple API calls. At first, I thought React was just being React 😅 But the real issue was deeper. 🧠 What was happening? user came from Context, and React treats object references as new on every render — even if the object’s content didn’t change. So, each render → new reference → effect re-runs → API storm 🌪️ ✅ The Fix Instead of passing the entire object, depend only on what’s necessary: useEffect(() => { fetchUserData(); }, [user.id]); // primitive, stable dependency Or, if you truly need the object, memoize it using useMemo or ensure the context value is stable. 💡 Takeaway > React compares dependencies by reference, not by value. Objects, arrays, and functions can silently trigger re-renders if not memoized. 🗣️ Your Turn Have you ever been bitten by dependency arrays or re-renders in React? How do you handle it — memoization, state refactoring, or something else? #ReactJS #JavaScript #WebDevelopment #ReactHooks #FrontendDevelopment #CodeTips #ReactPerformance #Nextjs #DevCommunity

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