React Interview Questions and Answers for Beginners Covering Frontend JS Concepts, Hooks, Components, and Best Practices in 2026
Top React.js Interview Questions for Freshers
React JS Training in Mumbai | React JS Online | JavaScript Training in Mumbai | JavaScript Online | Register for a Free Demo | Download Brochure
React.js is the most widely used frontend JavaScript library for building user interfaces in India in 2026. From product startups to large enterprise technology teams, React powers the frontend of web applications across every industry. As a result, React js interview questions appear in virtually every frontend developer hiring process, whether the role is entry-level or experienced.
This blog covers the most asked React interview questions and answers for beginners and freshers, organized from foundational React concepts to components, props, state, hooks, lifecycle methods, and performance optimization. Every question is numbered in plain text for easy navigation. Whether you are preparing through the best course in Mumbai with offline classroom training or through interactive online sessions available globally, this guide gives you complete coverage of what interviewers consistently ask in 2026.
React.js Fundamentals: Interview Questions Every Fresher Must Know
1. What is React.js and what problem does it solve?
React.js is an open-source JavaScript library developed by Meta, formerly Facebook, for building fast, interactive user interfaces. It solves the problem of efficiently updating and rendering the correct components in a web application when the underlying data changes. Before React, developers had to manually manipulate the DOM to reflect data changes, which was slow and error-prone as applications grew in complexity. React introduced a component-based architecture and a virtual DOM that makes UI updates predictable, efficient, and easier to maintain. React is not a full framework but a view library focused on the UI layer, making it flexible enough to be combined with different state management, routing, and backend solutions depending on the project's requirements.
2. What is the difference between a library and a framework and which one is React?
A library is a collection of reusable functions and tools that a developer calls to perform specific tasks, giving the developer full control over the application structure and flow. A framework is a more comprehensive structure that defines the architecture of the application, providing conventions, tools, and rules that the developer follows, with the framework calling the developer's code rather than the other way around. React is a library, specifically a UI library focused on the view layer of an application. It does not prescribe how to handle routing, server communication, or state management beyond the component level. Developers choose their own solutions for these concerns and integrate them with React. Angular, by contrast, is a full framework that provides built-in solutions for routing, forms, HTTP, and state management as part of a unified opinionated structure.
3. What is JSX and why is it used in React?
JSX, which stands for JavaScript XML, is a syntax extension for JavaScript that allows HTML-like markup to be written directly within JavaScript code. React uses JSX to describe what the UI should look like in a readable, declarative format that closely resembles the HTML structure of the rendered output. JSX is not valid JavaScript on its own and is transformed into regular JavaScript function calls by a compiler like Babel before the browser executes it. Each JSX element is converted into a React.createElement call that creates a React element object. JSX is not mandatory in React but is universally used because it makes the code significantly more readable and maintainable compared to writing nested React.createElement calls manually. Understanding JSX syntax rules including using className instead of class and camelCase event handlers is a common React js interview question for freshers.
4. What is the virtual DOM and how does React use it?
The virtual DOM is a lightweight JavaScript representation of the actual browser DOM that React maintains in memory. When the state or props of a component change, React creates a new virtual DOM tree representing the updated UI. It then compares this new virtual DOM tree with the previous one using a process called reconciliation or diffing. React identifies the minimum set of actual DOM updates required to bring the real DOM in sync with the new virtual DOM and applies only those specific changes. This approach is significantly faster than directly manipulating the real DOM for every state change because real DOM operations are slow while JavaScript object comparisons are fast. The virtual DOM is one of the core innovations that made React popular and is one of the most frequently explained concepts in React interview questions and answers for beginners.
5. What is the difference between the real DOM and the virtual DOM?
The real DOM is the browser's actual document object model, a tree structure representing all the HTML elements on the page. Every time the real DOM is updated, the browser re-paints and re-flows the affected portion of the page, which are expensive operations that slow down the user interface when updates are frequent. The virtual DOM is a plain JavaScript object tree maintained by React that mirrors the structure of the real DOM. Updating the virtual DOM is fast because it involves only JavaScript object manipulation with no browser rendering. React uses the virtual DOM as an intermediate layer, batching and minimizing actual DOM updates by computing what changed and applying only the necessary updates to the real DOM. The result is significantly better performance for applications with frequent data-driven UI updates compared to direct DOM manipulation.
6. What is a React component and what are the two types of components?
A React component is a self-contained, reusable piece of UI that accepts inputs called props and returns React elements describing what should appear on the screen. Components are the fundamental building blocks of a React application, allowing complex UIs to be broken down into independent, manageable pieces. The two types of React components are functional components and class components. Functional components are plain JavaScript functions that accept props as a parameter and return JSX. They are the modern standard for writing React components and support hooks for state and lifecycle management. Class components are ES6 classes that extend React.Component and define a render method returning JSX. They were the primary way to write stateful components before hooks were introduced in React 16.8. Functional components with hooks are now the strongly preferred approach in all new React codebases.
7. What are props in React and how are they used?
Props, short for properties, are the mechanism through which a parent component passes data and configuration to a child component. Props are read-only from the child component's perspective, meaning a component cannot modify its own props. They are passed as attributes in JSX when the child component is rendered, and the child component receives them as an object parameter in its function signature or through this.props in a class component. Props allow components to be reusable and configurable, as the same component can render different content depending on the props it receives. For example, a Button component might receive a label prop that determines its text and an onClick prop that determines what happens when it is clicked. This makes the Button reusable across the application with different configurations.
8. What is state in React and how does it differ from props?
State is a built-in React object that holds data that can change over time within a component and that, when changed, triggers a re-render of the component with the updated data. Unlike props which are passed from parent to child and are immutable from the child's perspective, state is managed internally by the component itself and can be updated using the setState function in class components or the useState hook in functional components. Props represent external configuration passed into a component. State represents internal, mutable data managed by the component. A good example of state is a toggle button that tracks whether it is on or off, since that on or off value changes in response to user interaction and needs to cause a re-render when it changes. Props and state are the two primary data sources for rendering React components.
9. What is the useState hook and how does it work?
useState is a React hook that adds state management capability to functional components. It is called with an initial state value and returns an array containing the current state value and a function to update it. When the update function is called with a new value, React re-renders the component with the updated state value. The state update function can receive either a new value directly or a function that receives the previous state and returns the new state, which is the preferred pattern when the new state depends on the previous state to avoid stale closure issues. Multiple useState calls can be made in a single functional component to manage multiple independent pieces of state. Each useState call creates an independent state variable with its own update function. useState is one of the most fundamental hooks and is central to every React js interview question set for freshers.
10. What are the rules of hooks in React?
React hooks have two mandatory rules that must be followed. The first rule is that hooks must only be called at the top level of a React function, never inside conditional statements, loops, or nested functions. This ensures that hooks are called in the same order on every render, which is how React maintains the correct state associations between renders. The second rule is that hooks must only be called from React functional components or from custom hooks, never from regular JavaScript functions, class components, or event handlers. These rules exist because React relies on the order in which hooks are called to correctly associate state and effects with the right hook calls on subsequent renders. Violating either rule causes React to produce incorrect state associations that result in bugs that are difficult to diagnose. The ESLint plugin for React hooks enforces these rules automatically during development.
React.js Interview Questions on Components and Component Lifecycle
11. What is the difference between a functional component and a class component?
A functional component is a plain JavaScript function that accepts props and returns JSX. It is concise, easier to read, easier to test, and with the introduction of hooks in React 16.8 it can manage state and side effects just as fully as class components. A class component is an ES6 class extending React.Component with a mandatory render method returning JSX and optional lifecycle methods like componentDidMount and componentDidUpdate. Class components require more boilerplate including a constructor for state initialization and explicit this binding for event handlers. Before hooks, class components were the only way to use state and lifecycle methods, but functional components with hooks are now the preferred pattern for all new React development. Interviewers ask this question to assess whether a candidate understands the evolution of React and can work confidently with both patterns, as many existing codebases still contain class components.
12. What are React lifecycle methods and which are the most important?
React lifecycle methods are special methods available in class components that are called automatically by React at specific points in a component's life. The three phases of a component's lifecycle are mounting, updating, and unmounting. The most important lifecycle methods are componentDidMount, which is called once after the component is first inserted into the DOM and is used for data fetching, subscriptions, and DOM manipulation that requires the component to be rendered; componentDidUpdate, which is called after every update caused by prop or state changes and is used for responding to changes by performing side effects like additional data fetching; and componentWillUnmount, which is called just before the component is removed from the DOM and is used for cleanup such as clearing timers, canceling API requests, and removing event listeners. Understanding these three lifecycle methods and their functional component equivalents through useEffect is essential for React interview questions for freshers.
13. What is the useEffect hook and how does it replace lifecycle methods?
useEffect is a React hook that allows functional components to perform side effects, replacing the functionality of componentDidMount, componentDidUpdate, and componentWillUnmount from class components. It accepts a callback function and an optional dependency array. When no dependency array is provided, the effect runs after every render. When an empty dependency array is provided, the effect runs only once after the initial render, equivalent to componentDidMount. When the dependency array contains values, the effect runs after the initial render and again whenever any of the listed values change, equivalent to componentDidUpdate with a conditional check. The callback function can optionally return a cleanup function that runs before the next effect execution and when the component unmounts, equivalent to componentWillUnmount. useEffect is one of the most important hooks and its dependency array behavior is one of the most commonly asked React hook interview questions for freshers.
14. What is the key prop in React and why is it important?
The key prop is a special string or number attribute that React uses to identify which items in a list have changed, been added, or been removed during reconciliation. When rendering lists of elements using array mapping, each element must have a unique key prop to help React efficiently update only the elements that changed rather than re-rendering the entire list. Keys should be stable, unique identifiers such as database IDs rather than array indices, because using indices as keys causes incorrect behavior when the list order changes or items are inserted or removed. When keys are missing or non-unique, React logs a warning and may produce incorrect rendering behavior when the list updates. The key prop is not accessible to the component receiving it and cannot be read through props. It exists only as a hint to React's reconciliation algorithm.
15. What is the difference between controlled and uncontrolled components in React?
A controlled component is a form element whose value is controlled by React state. The component's value attribute is set to a state variable and an onChange handler updates the state when the user types, making React the single source of truth for the input's value. Every keystroke triggers a state update and a re-render. This allows React to validate, format, or transform the input as the user types. An uncontrolled component stores its value in the DOM itself rather than in React state. The value is accessed using a ref rather than being driven by state. Uncontrolled components are simpler to set up for basic use cases and work more like traditional HTML form elements. Controlled components are the recommended pattern in React for complex forms requiring validation, conditional display, or dynamic field relationships because they keep all form state in React and make it accessible and controllable at all times.
16. What is prop drilling and what problems does it cause?
Prop drilling is the pattern where a prop must be passed through multiple intermediate components that do not need the prop themselves in order to reach a deeply nested child component that does. For example, if a user authentication object is needed by a component five levels deep in the component tree, it must be passed as a prop through all four intermediate components even though none of them use it. This creates tight coupling between components, makes intermediate components harder to refactor since removing or changing the prop anywhere in the chain breaks the deeply nested component, reduces code readability, and makes the codebase harder to maintain as the application grows. Prop drilling is the problem that the React Context API and external state management libraries like Redux are designed to solve by providing a way to share data across the component tree without passing it through every intermediate level.
17. What is the React Context API and when should it be used?
The React Context API provides a way to share data across the component tree without prop drilling by creating a context object that components can subscribe to directly regardless of their position in the tree. A context is created using React.createContext, which returns a Provider and Consumer pair. The Provider component wraps the part of the tree that needs access to the context value and passes the value through its value prop. Any descendant component can access the context value using the useContext hook without receiving it through props from intermediate components. Context is best used for data that is genuinely global across many parts of the application, such as the current authenticated user, the selected language, or the current theme. It should not be used as a replacement for all prop passing, as overusing context makes component relationships less explicit and can cause unnecessary re-renders if not managed carefully.
18. What is the useContext hook and how does it simplify context consumption?
useContext is a React hook that allows functional components to consume a React context value without needing to wrap the component in a Consumer component. It accepts a context object created by React.createContext and returns the current context value provided by the nearest matching Provider above the component in the tree. When the Provider's value changes, all components using useContext with that context re-render with the updated value. useContext simplifies context consumption significantly compared to the older Consumer pattern, which required a render prop function and added nesting to the component structure. With useContext, the context value is accessed as a simple variable in the component function body, making the code more readable and easier to work with. useContext is one of the essential hooks that every fresher preparing for React interview questions should understand thoroughly.
19. What is the difference between React.memo and useMemo?
React.memo is a higher-order component that wraps a functional component and prevents it from re-rendering if its props have not changed. When a parent component re-renders, React.memo performs a shallow comparison of the previous and current props and skips the child component's re-render if the props are equal. It is used to optimize components that are pure in the sense that their output depends only on their props and they are expensive to render. useMemo is a hook that memoizes the return value of a computation, recalculating it only when its dependency array values change. It is used to avoid expensive calculations being re-run on every render when the inputs to the calculation have not changed. React.memo prevents a component from re-rendering. useMemo prevents an expensive value from being recalculated. Both are performance optimization tools and should be used only when there is a measurable performance problem, not as a default pattern for every component or value.
20. What is useCallback and when should it be used?
useCallback is a React hook that returns a memoized version of a callback function that only changes if one of the values in its dependency array changes. Without useCallback, a new function reference is created on every render, which causes child components wrapped in React.memo to re-render unnecessarily because they receive a new function reference as a prop even when the function's behavior has not changed. useCallback is used to stabilize function references that are passed as props to memoized child components or included in dependency arrays of other hooks. It accepts a function and a dependency array and returns the same function reference as long as the dependencies have not changed. Like React.memo and useMemo, useCallback should be used selectively to solve specific performance problems rather than applied to every function, because the memoization itself has a cost that outweighs the benefit when the component is cheap to re-render.
React.js Interview Questions on Routing, State Management, and Advanced Concepts
21. What is React Router and what problem does it solve?
React Router is the most widely used library for client-side routing in React applications. It solves the problem of navigating between different views or pages in a single-page application without triggering a full page reload from the server. React Router maps URL paths to React components, rendering the appropriate component when the user navigates to a matching URL. It provides components including BrowserRouter which wraps the application and enables HTML5 history-based routing, Routes which contains the route definitions, Route which maps a specific path to a component, Link which renders navigation links that update the URL without a page reload, and useNavigate which is a hook for programmatic navigation. Without a routing solution, a React application renders a single view and cannot reflect different application states in the URL, breaking browser navigation, bookmarking, and direct URL access.
22. What is the difference between useNavigate and the Link component in React Router?
The Link component renders an anchor element that updates the URL and renders the matching route component when clicked without a full page reload. It is used for declarative navigation in JSX, such as menu items, navigation bars, and in-content links where the user explicitly clicks to navigate. useNavigate is a hook that returns a navigate function allowing programmatic navigation in response to non-click events such as form submission success, authentication state changes, timeout redirects, or any condition-based navigation that occurs in event handlers or effects rather than directly in JSX. For example, after a login form submits successfully and authentication is confirmed, useNavigate is used to redirect the user to the dashboard programmatically without requiring them to click a link.
23. What is Redux and when is it needed in a React application?
Redux is a predictable state management library for JavaScript applications that provides a single centralized store for all application state. It follows three core principles: a single source of truth where all application state lives in one store, state is read-only and can only be changed by dispatching actions, and state changes are made by pure functions called reducers that take the current state and an action and return the new state. Redux is needed in React applications when the application state is complex with many interdependent pieces, when many components across different parts of the tree need access to the same state, when the history of state changes needs to be traceable for debugging, or when the team needs predictable, testable state management. For simpler applications, the Context API combined with useReducer may be sufficient, and Redux Toolkit is the modern recommended way to use Redux with significantly less boilerplate.
24. What is the useReducer hook and how does it differ from useState?
useReducer is a React hook for managing complex state logic in functional components. It accepts a reducer function and an initial state value and returns the current state and a dispatch function. The reducer function receives the current state and an action object and returns the new state based on the action type. useReducer is an alternative to useState that is better suited for state objects with multiple sub-values, state transitions that involve complex logic with multiple cases, or situations where the next state depends on the previous state in a non-trivial way. useState is simpler and sufficient for independent primitive values or simple objects. useReducer brings the predictability of the Redux pattern into a single component without requiring an external library, making it a good choice for complex local state before reaching for a global state management solution like Redux.
25. What is lazy loading in React and how is it implemented?
Lazy loading in React defers the loading of a component until it is actually needed, reducing the initial bundle size and improving the application's initial load time. It is implemented using React.lazy combined with the Suspense component. React.lazy accepts a function that returns a dynamic import of the component module and returns a lazy component. The lazy component must be rendered inside a Suspense component that specifies a fallback prop containing the UI to display while the lazy component's code is being loaded, such as a loading spinner. This technique is most effective for large components, route-level components in single-page applications, and components that are conditionally rendered based on user actions. React Router integrates naturally with React.lazy and Suspense to enable route-based code splitting, which is the most common lazy loading pattern in production React applications.
26. What is the difference between server-side rendering and client-side rendering in React?
Client-side rendering is the default React behavior where the browser downloads a minimal HTML file and a JavaScript bundle, executes the JavaScript to build and render the component tree, and inserts the rendered HTML into the DOM. The initial page load shows a blank screen until the JavaScript is downloaded, parsed, and executed. Server-side rendering generates the full HTML of the page on the server for each request and sends it to the browser, allowing the browser to display content immediately before JavaScript loads. This improves initial load performance and search engine optimization because search engine crawlers see fully rendered HTML. Next.js is the most popular React framework that implements server-side rendering and static site generation on top of React. SSR adds server infrastructure complexity but significantly improves perceived performance and SEO for content-heavy applications.
27. What are higher-order components in React and when are they used?
A higher-order component, commonly abbreviated as HOC, is a function that takes a component as an argument and returns a new component with enhanced behavior or additional props. HOCs implement the cross-cutting concerns pattern, allowing logic that needs to be shared across multiple components to be abstracted into a reusable function. Common use cases include adding authentication checks that redirect unauthenticated users, injecting data-fetching logic, adding error boundary behavior, or wrapping components with analytics tracking. HOCs were the primary code reuse pattern in React before hooks were introduced. Custom hooks now serve the same purpose more cleanly in most cases because they can share stateful logic without the additional component nesting that HOCs introduce. HOCs are still encountered in many existing codebases and libraries and remain an important concept for React interview questions.
28. What is an error boundary in React and how is it implemented?
An error boundary is a React class component that catches JavaScript errors anywhere in its child component tree, logs those errors, and displays a fallback UI instead of crashing the entire application. Error boundaries are implemented by defining either the static getDerivedStateFromError lifecycle method, which updates state to display a fallback UI when an error is caught, or the componentDidCatch lifecycle method, which receives the error and error information for logging purposes, or both. The error boundary component wraps parts of the UI that might throw errors, localizing failures so that an error in one section of the page does not crash the entire application. Error boundaries do not catch errors in event handlers, asynchronous code, server-side rendering, or errors thrown in the error boundary itself. As of 2026, error boundaries can only be implemented as class components because no hook equivalent exists for catching render errors.
29. What is the difference between useEffect with an empty dependency array and without a dependency array?
useEffect without a dependency array runs after every render of the component, meaning it executes after the initial render and after every subsequent re-render triggered by state or prop changes. This is useful for effects that need to run in response to any change but is rarely the correct choice because it can cause performance issues and infinite loops if the effect itself triggers a re-render. useEffect with an empty dependency array runs only once after the initial render and never again for the lifetime of the component instance, equivalent to componentDidMount. This is the correct pattern for one-time setup operations like fetching initial data, setting up subscriptions, or attaching global event listeners. Confusing these two behaviors is a common source of bugs for React beginners and is a very frequently asked React js interview question topic for freshers.
30. What is reconciliation in React?
Reconciliation is the process through which React updates the DOM to match the current state of the component tree. When a component's state or props change, React builds a new virtual DOM tree representing the updated UI and compares it with the previous virtual DOM tree using its diffing algorithm. The diffing algorithm makes assumptions to reduce the complexity of comparison from O(n³) to O(n). It assumes that elements of different types produce different trees, so when the root element type changes, React tears down the old tree and builds a new one. It assumes that sibling elements with the same key are the same element across renders. For elements of the same type, React keeps the existing DOM node and updates only the changed attributes. React then applies the minimum set of DOM operations necessary to bring the real DOM in sync with the new virtual DOM. Understanding reconciliation is important for explaining why keys matter in lists and why unnecessary re-renders should be avoided.
React.js Interview Questions on Performance and Best Practices
31. What causes unnecessary re-renders in React and how can they be prevented?
Unnecessary re-renders occur when a component re-renders even though its output has not changed. Common causes include a parent component re-rendering which triggers all child components to re-render by default even if the child's props have not changed, a component's state being updated with the same value, new object or function references being created on every render and passed as props, and context value changes that cause all context consumers to re-render even if the specific data they use has not changed. Prevention strategies include wrapping components with React.memo to skip re-renders when props have not changed, using useCallback to stabilize function references passed as props, using useMemo to stabilize object references passed as props, splitting context into smaller contexts so that updates to one context do not affect consumers of another, and using the functional update form of useState to avoid stale state comparisons.
32. What is code splitting in React and why is it important?
Code splitting is the technique of dividing the application's JavaScript bundle into smaller chunks that are loaded on demand rather than loading the entire application code upfront. Without code splitting, the entire application code must be downloaded before the user can interact with any part of it, resulting in slow initial load times for large applications. With code splitting, only the code needed for the current route or feature is loaded initially, with additional chunks loaded as the user navigates to new sections. React supports code splitting through dynamic imports combined with React.lazy and Suspense. Tools like Webpack and Vite automatically handle the creation of separate bundle chunks for lazily loaded components. Code splitting is particularly impactful for large single-page applications with many routes and features where a significant portion of the code is not needed for the initial view.
33. What is the difference between React.Fragment and an empty fragment syntax?
React.Fragment is a component that allows multiple elements to be returned from a component's render without adding an extra DOM node to wrap them. Rendering multiple sibling elements requires a wrapper element in JSX because JSX expressions must have a single root element. Using a div as a wrapper adds an unnecessary DOM node that can interfere with CSS layouts, flexbox, and grid structures. React.Fragment solves this by providing a logical wrapper that exists only in the virtual DOM and produces no actual DOM node. The shorthand syntax for React.Fragment is empty angle brackets with no component name. The only difference between React.Fragment and the empty shorthand is that React.Fragment can accept a key prop for use in lists where multiple fragments need unique keys, while the shorthand syntax does not support any props.
34. What is the StrictMode component in React and what does it do?
React.StrictMode is a development-only tool that activates additional warnings and checks for potential problems in the application without affecting the production build. It is used by wrapping the application or a portion of the component tree with the StrictMode component. In development mode, StrictMode intentionally renders components twice to help detect side effects that are not properly handled in setup and cleanup, checks for usage of deprecated lifecycle methods and APIs, warns about unexpected side effects in render, warns about legacy string ref usage, and warns about legacy context API usage. The double rendering in development is intentional and is not a bug; it helps expose effects that incorrectly assume they run only once. StrictMode produces no visible UI and has no performance impact in the production build.
35. What is the difference between a pure component and a regular component in React?
A pure component in class-based React is a component that extends React.PureComponent instead of React.Component. PureComponent automatically implements a shallow comparison of the current and previous props and state in the shouldComponentUpdate lifecycle method and prevents a re-render if neither has changed. A regular component extending React.Component always re-renders when setState is called or when the parent re-renders, regardless of whether the data actually changed. The functional component equivalent of PureComponent is a component wrapped with React.memo, which performs the same shallow prop comparison to prevent unnecessary re-renders. Pure components and React.memo improve performance for components that receive the same props frequently without meaningful changes, but shallow comparison means that object and array props that are recreated with the same content on every render will still trigger re-renders because they are new references.
Additional React.js Interview Questions for Freshers
36. What is the difference between npm and npx and which one is used to create a React app?
npm is the Node Package Manager used to install, manage, and run packages from the npm registry. When npm is used to run a package, the package must be installed either globally or in the project's node_modules first. npx is a package executor that comes with npm and allows packages to be executed without installing them permanently. npx downloads and runs the specified package on demand, always using the latest version. Creating a React application uses npx with the create-react-app command, which generates a complete starter React project with all configuration preset. npx is preferred for project creation tools like create-react-app and Vite because it ensures the latest version of the tool is used without requiring a global installation that could become outdated.
37. What is Vite and how does it differ from Create React App?
Vite is a modern frontend build tool that provides significantly faster development server startup and hot module replacement compared to Create React App. Create React App uses Webpack under the hood, which bundles the entire application before the development server is ready. This causes slow startup times as the application grows. Vite uses native ES modules in the browser during development, serving files on demand without bundling, which results in near-instant server startup regardless of application size. For production builds, Vite uses Rollup for optimized bundling. Vite has become the preferred choice for new React projects in 2026 because of its dramatically better development experience. Create React App is still encountered in older projects but is no longer actively maintained and is not recommended for new projects.
38. What is the purpose of the package.json file in a React project?
The package.json file is the manifest of a Node.js project including React applications. It contains the project name, version, and description, the list of production dependencies that the application requires to run including React and React DOM, the list of development dependencies required only during development and building such as testing libraries and build tools, scripts that define commands for starting the development server, building for production, running tests, and other project-specific tasks, and the browserslist configuration that specifies which browsers the project targets for compatibility. The scripts section is particularly important because npm run start, npm run build, and npm test are the commands used daily during React development and are directly defined in the scripts object of package.json.
39. How do you handle forms in React?
Forms in React are typically handled using controlled components where each form input's value is tied to a state variable and an onChange handler updates the state on every keystroke. A single state object can hold all form fields as keys, with a single generic onChange handler that uses the input's name attribute to update the correct field. On form submission, the onSubmit handler receives the event, calls preventDefault to stop the default browser form submission, and processes the state data such as sending it to an API. For complex forms with many fields and validation requirements, form libraries like React Hook Form or Formik are widely used because they reduce boilerplate, manage validation, handle error display, and optimize re-renders. React Hook Form is particularly popular in 2026 for its performance advantages and minimal re-render approach using uncontrolled inputs with refs.
40. What are custom hooks in React and why are they useful?
Custom hooks are JavaScript functions whose names begin with use and that call one or more built-in React hooks. They allow stateful logic to be extracted from components and shared across multiple components without duplicating code. Any logic that involves hooks such as useState, useEffect, or useContext and that needs to be reused across multiple components is a good candidate for a custom hook. For example, a useFetch custom hook can encapsulate all the logic for fetching data from an API, managing loading and error states, and returning the fetched data so that any component can use it with a single hook call. Custom hooks follow the same rules as built-in hooks and can call other custom hooks. They are the modern replacement for the higher-order component and render prop patterns for sharing stateful logic between components in React applications.
How to Prepare for React.js Interviews With the Best Training in 2026
Build Real React Projects for Your Portfolio
The most effective preparation for React interview questions is building real, complete React applications that you can reference and demonstrate in interviews. A portfolio containing a multi-page application with React Router, a project using the Context API or Redux for state management, a project with data fetching using useEffect or React Query, and a form-heavy application demonstrating controlled components and validation demonstrates the full breadth of skills interviewers assess. These projects should be hosted on GitHub with clear README documentation and ideally deployed on a platform like Vercel or Netlify so interviewers can see them live.
Strengthen JavaScript Fundamentals Alongside React
React interview questions for freshers frequently include JavaScript fundamentals that React relies on heavily, including arrow functions, destructuring, spread and rest operators, array methods like map and filter, promises and async await, ES6 modules, and closures. Candidates who are strong in JavaScript answer React questions with greater depth and confidence because they understand why React works the way it does rather than just knowing the syntax. Investing time in JavaScript Training in Mumbai or JavaScript Online Training alongside React training builds the foundational understanding that makes React concepts genuinely intuitive.
Why Structured Training Produces Better React Interview Results
React involves interconnected concepts spanning JavaScript fundamentals, component architecture, state management, hooks, routing, performance optimization, and tooling. Building professional-level understanding across all these areas from scattered YouTube tutorials and documentation is slow and leaves conceptual gaps that surface in interviews at exactly the wrong moment. Structured training with live interactive sessions, project-based learning, and interview preparation focused on the exact question types covered in this blog produces significantly stronger and faster results.
JustAcademy's React JS training programs cover every concept in this blog through a comprehensive curriculum that includes real-world project development, live doubt resolution through interactive online and offline sessions, mock interviews, and placement support tailored to the Indian frontend developer job market.
For professionals and freshers in Maharashtra who prefer hands-on classroom learning, React JS Training in Mumbai is widely recognized as the best course in Mumbai for building complete, interview-ready React skills with real project experience. For learners anywhere in India or globally, React JS Online Training delivers the same fully live and interactive online curriculum with placement support from any location.
Additional courses that strengthen your frontend developer profile include:
JavaScript Training in Mumbai | JavaScript Online for the JavaScript foundation that React is built on
HTML Training in Mumbai | HTML Online for the markup foundation every frontend developer needs
CSS Training in Mumbai | CSS Online for styling and layout skills that complement React component development
Angular Training in Mumbai | Angular Online for professionals who want to add Angular knowledge alongside React
Also explore JustAcademy bootcamps for complete frontend career transitions:
MERN Stack Developer Bootcamp Online | MERN Stack Bootcamp in Mumbai
Front-End Development Bootcamp Online | Front-End Bootcamp in Mumbai
Full Stack Developer Pro Bootcamp Online | Full Stack Pro Bootcamp in Mumbai
Conclusion
The forty React js interview questions and answers covered in this blog span every dimension that interviewers assess for fresher and junior React developer roles, from JSX, virtual DOM, and component types to hooks, state management, routing, performance optimization, and modern tooling. This guide addresses react interview questions and answers for beginners as well as the more advanced topics that give freshers an edge over other candidates.
Strong React interview performance is built through a combination of conceptual clarity on how React works under the hood and substantial hands-on practice building real applications. Understanding why the virtual DOM improves performance matters as much as knowing that it does. Being able to explain the useEffect dependency array with a concrete example from a project you built matters as much as knowing the syntax. Preparing both dimensions gives you the depth and confidence that interviewers remember.
The fastest and most reliable path to that preparation level is structured training with live interactive sessions, real React project development, mock interview preparation, and placement support connected directly to the Indian frontend developer job market.
For learners in Maharashtra, React JS Training in Mumbai is the best course in Mumbai for complete React interview preparation with offline classroom training and real project experience. For learners globally, React JS Online Training delivers the same live interactive online curriculum and placement support from anywhere.
Register for a Free Demo to experience the training firsthand and speak with an advisor about your React interview preparation goals, or Download the Brochure to review full course details, batch schedules, and fees before you decide.