BeginnerReact Concepts

What is React JS? [Beginner-Friendly Guide]

React is a powerful JavaScript library for building dynamic, high-performance user interfaces. In this beginner-friendly guide, you'll learn what React is, why it was created, and how it revolutionized frontend development with component-based architecture and virtual DOM optimization.

By Rudraksh Laddha1/7/2025

Who Created React?

React was created by Jordan Walke, a software engineer at Meta (Facebook) who was frustrated with the complexity of building interactive UIs.

  • First deployed in Facebook's News Feed in 2011 to handle real-time updates without full page refreshes.
  • Open-sourced in May 2013 after proving its worth in production at Facebook scale.

Why Was React Created?

  • jQuery Spaghetti Code – Managing DOM state across complex interactions became nightmare.
  • Manual DOM Manipulation – Every state change required careful DOM updates, leading to bugs.
  • Performance Bottlenecks – Frequent DOM updates slowed down user interactions.

Facebook's engineering team needed a solution for:

  • Real-time features like live comments and notifications
  • Component reusability across different product teams
  • Apps that could handle millions of concurrent users

✅ What Problems React Solved

1.Component-Based Architecture
Encapsulated, reusable UI pieces that manage their own state and lifecycle.

2.Virtual DOM
In-memory representation that calculates minimal DOM changes, boosting performance by 2-10x.

3.Declarative Programming
Describe what the UI should look like for any state, React handles the transitions.


Why React JS Is Still the Best Choice in 2025

After building 50+ React applications, I can confidently say it scales from simple landing pages to enterprise dashboards handling millions of users.

The ecosystem maturity with Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion, and Next.js means faster development and better performance out of the box.


✅ Quick Recap:

  • React JS is a UI library focused on component composition and state management.
  • Designed for interactive user interfaces and single-page applications.
  • Created by Jordan Walke at Facebook to solve real production problems.
  • Eliminates DOM manipulation complexity and performance issues.
  • Core concepts: Component Architecture, Virtual DOM, Declarative Rendering.

Top 5 FAQs About React JS

1. Is React JS good for beginners in 2025?
Absolutely. Modern React with hooks is more intuitive than class components, plus excellent DevTools and learning resources.

2. What is the difference between React and React Native?
React targets web browsers using DOM. React Native compiles to native mobile components for iOS/Android.

3. What is the use of JSX in React?
JSX provides HTML-like syntax in JavaScript, making components more readable and maintainable.

4. How does the Virtual DOM improve performance?
It batches updates and calculates the minimal set of changes needed, avoiding expensive DOM operations.

5. Can I build a full website using React JS?
Yes. With Next.js or Gatsby, you can build everything from static sites to full-stack applications with SSR and API routes.

❤️ At Learn Virendana, we love creating high-quality React tutorials that simplify complex concepts and deliver a practical, real-world React learning experience for developers