Rohan kumar’s Post

Everyone’s talking about switching to React jobs. But no one’s talking about the fakers — and how to spot them. Faking 2–3 years of React experience with no real work behind them. Let’s be honest — fake experience is flooding the job market. Here’s what I’ve personally learned 👇 🚩 1. They know the *syntax*, not the *reason* You ask: “Why did you use useEffect here?” They say: “To fetch data.” But they can’t answer: - Why not inside the component body? - What happens if dependencies are wrong? - Did you use cleanup? Why or why not? 📌 **Real devs** explain behavior.   **Fakers** repeat definitions. 🚩 2. No debugging scars = no real dev work Every real React dev has gone through: - useEffect causing infinite loops   - Re-renders that tank performance   - A state update not reflecting due to stale closures   - “Can’t perform a React state update on an unmounted component” error Ask:   > “What was a tough bug you faced in production?”   > “How did you debug it?” If they say “I usually didn’t face issues” — they’re faking, bro. 🚩 3. Projects are shallow tutorial clones Github is full of: - Netflix clone   - Weather app   - Blog CMS   - No README, no routing, no deployment Ask: > “What are the folders in your app?”   > “How does state flow work across screens?”   > “What would you improve if you rebuilt this?” If they can’t walk you through it like it’s their baby — 🚨🚨 --- 🚩 4. Performance is not even on their radar React devs with real experience will mention: - `React.memo`, `useMemo`, `useCallback`   - Avoiding prop drilling   - List virtualization   - Lazy loading / Suspense   - Bundle splitting Fakers don’t even know what to measure. Ask: > “How do you avoid unnecessary re-renders?”   > “What tools do you use to profile performance?” If the answer is blank, so is their experience. 🚩 5. Vague work in real-world projects Everyone says: > “I worked on the dashboard”   > “I helped with the UI”   > “It was a team project” But real contributors can walk you through: - How data was fetched   - How state was handled   - How they debugged or optimized a feature   - Trade-offs they made in implementation Fakers go silent or switch to theory. 🚩 6. They avoid hands-on coding during interviews Real devs don’t love live coding either —   But they’re okay talking and coding through small problems. Fakers panic.   They fumble with basic array methods (`map`, `filter`, `reduce`).   They avoid the keyboard like it’s cursed. 💡 Pro tip: Ask them to build a mini search bar with debouncing live on CodeSandbox. ☑️ What to do if you're hiring or mentoring: ✔️ Ask “why” more than “what”   ✔️ Let them walk through their project architecture   ✔️ Push them gently to code or explain live   ✔️ Focus on thought process, not syntax perfection 🚫 This isn’t hate on career switchers.   I help people switch into React all the time.   But *faking experience* doesn’t help anyone. Don't skip the grind #frontend #react

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