How to Learn JavaScript and React

Step 1: JavaScript fundamentals

Learn the core language: variables, data types, functions, arrays, objects, and the modern ES6+ syntax (`const`/`let`, arrow functions, template literals, destructuring).

JavaScript has quirky parts — equality, `this`, closures, and the event loop. Understanding them early prevents confusing bugs later.

// Modern JavaScript
const greet = (users) =>
  users
    .filter((u) => u.active)
    .map((u) => `Hello, ${u.name}`);

console.log(greet([{ name: "Ana", active: true }]));

Step 2: The DOM and browser APIs

Before React, learn how the browser works: the DOM, events, selectors, and fetch. React hides this layer, but knowing it makes you a genuinely better frontend developer.

Step 3: React components

React organizes UI into components — reusable, isolated pieces of the interface. Learn components, JSX, props, and the idea of a virtual DOM.

Then move to hooks: `useState` and `useEffect` first, then custom hooks, and finally the pattern of lifting state up and separating concerns.

// A minimal React component
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = React.useState(0);
  return (
    <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
      Clicks: {count}
    </button>
  );
}

Step 4: Build and deploy real apps

Combine JavaScript, React, and data fetching in real projects: an interactive dashboard, a project board, a shop UI. Deploy to a host and show it in your portfolio.

You will also meet the ecosystem — Vite for tooling, Tailwind for styling, and TypeScript as the safe superset modern React teams use.

Step 5: Level up to professional frontend

Job-ready frontend development is more than syntax: it is performance, accessibility, state management, and component design. The Aitis engineering path covers these exactly, from Junior to Senior level.