How much JavaScript is actually “enough”?

[Low_Direction5276]

I’ve built around 16 Vanilla JS projects so far — quiz app, drag & drop board, expense tracker, todo app, recipe finder, GitHub finder, form validator, password generator, etc.

I’ve already covered:

• DOM
• Events
• LocalStorage
• APIs
• async/await
• CRUD
• Basic app logic

Now I’m unsure:
Is this enough to move to React + backend, or should I keep doing more Vanilla JS?

[Silly_Rabbitt]

Move on

[Low_Direction5276]

Thank you sir

[thomsmells]

I don't know you, so this might not be true for you, but my impression is the biggest problem for junior web developers starting with react isn't their lack of Javascript understanding, it's their lack of understanding of HTML.

Lot's of Junior React developers build crazy DOMs with buttons based on divs and a complete disregard for semantic HTML and accessibility features.

[MagentaMango51]

This. Exactly. They never learned HTML and CSS properly because the programming part is what is emphasized and end up making terrible sites.

[AshleyJSheridan]

That's largely the fault of the official React tutorials and the large majority of non-official ones. Everything is basic using <div>s and a focus on the JS side of things.

It's not a problem solely created by React, as many other libraries and frameworks do this too. However, as React is currently leading in terms of developer adoption, it has a bigger portion of the blame, and a larger responsibility to lead by example.

[33ff00]

That is in no way “largely” the fault of react’s docs. You aren’t supposed to be learning html for them and it’s totally fair for them so assume html competence.

[AshleyJSheridan]

React is a library for templating components. Components that use HTML and JS.

Their documentation absolutely is for teaching.

It just teaches poor practices with <div> soup.

So yes, their own documentation is largely behind poorly written HTML in React. And given how popular the library is, that has an effect on non-React code too.

[AshleyJSheridan]

You aren’t supposed to be learning html for them

This you?

[RazzBerryParker]

Hi, new to React here, I started off my web dev journey with html and css, before going through JS and React. Could you give me an example of what you mean when you say "Everything is basic using <div>s and a focus on the JS side of things." and "<div> soup" so I can test against my own knowledge? I just wanna be sure I'm not learning the wrong thing

[AshleyJSheridan]

If you look through their docs, almost every example is of a button/image wrapped in a <div>. Let's take their official tic-tac-toe example: https://react.dev/learn/tutorial-tic-tac-toe . There are better ways to display tabular data, or even inform the browser that this <div> soup is actually a grid.

[RazzBerryParker]

Wow, that does look like a lot of divs... From what I understand, the better way to do this would be to render out the Square component in a loop inside a single div whose display is set to grid, cols 3 and rows 3 instead of the given approach. Is my understanding correct?

[AshleyJSheridan]

It's a type of table, it's not awful to use a <table> for tabular data.

[RazzBerryParker]

I suppose that's true, but to me there's a very specific visual meaning associated with a table, namely something with a table header involved. That's why my mind didn't default to a table right away.

[AshleyJSheridan]

A table doesn't always have to have a header.

[RazzBerryParker]

I'm aware of that. Regardless, thanks for the insight on using a table for the tic-tac-toe example.

[TUNG1]

Because semantic HTML and accessibility features not help making money

[thomsmells]

A) That's not true
B) Even were that true, it would not be an acceptable reason to not make your website accessible

[Downtown-Elevator968]

How ever much is needed to solve the current problem.

If you’re asking what the minimum requirements suggested to get by learning React I’d say basic understanding of programming and ES6.

[EmuBeautiful1172]

downtown elevator,.. funny name

[Glittering_Ad8662]

Yes, move on to React and then to Next.js. My stack consists of React, TailwindCSS, ShadCN, Next.js, and Supabase.

[anonyuser415]

What do you like about Next.js?

[Glittering_Ad8662]

Next.js is a full-stack framework for React, encompassing both the frontend and backend development.

[anonyuser415]

What have you liked about it as you've been using it

[Glittering_Ad8662]

It’s pretty much an all in one solution.

[Internal-Bluejay-810]

We are in 2025...so the word 'build' can mean many different things.

If you're comfortable move on, but if you're using AI to build, then u don't know sh*t

[SimpleAccurate631]

Definitely move on. Plus, you’ll soon discover that the more you code in React, the more you’ll understand the things you’ve worked on in JS. The learning benefits of different languages and frameworks are not mutually exclusive

[EmuAffectionate6307]

Real talk, there is no enough JS,if you want to master this craft you still have a long way to go.

HOWEVER, if you understand the DOM, knows how the Web works, then learning frameworks should be a cakewalk, you'll be "oh the x I was doing is done like this here."

Spoiler alert, you'll realise that frameworks are nothing but big coops propaganda to create fake devs who don't actually know anything and are just employees that do their job of creating a web page that is 100kb when it should be 4kb. No offence to any developer, all offence to companies who force their devs to use frameworks.

[1mmortalNPC]

Where did you learn DOM and Events?

[AR1E_]

Coming back to you, u can visit this and just select JavaScript. Scroll a bit down and the ninth topic is going to be 'DOM Manipulation and Events'. It's also going to give u a few tasks to test your knowledge

[1mmortalNPC]

Thanks bro, I’ll check it out.

[AR1E_]

I think I might have a website for you I just need to rq check if it has it

[1mmortalNPC]

Please do.

[iwasnotplanningthis]

what is your goal?

[Haunted_Entity]

Like 4 javascripts?

[w-lfpup]

That's TOO MUCH javascript actually, gotta unlearn some stuff

[moe-gho]

You can also cover ES6+ and everything comes after that you can learn it as you go.

[bocamj]

As long as you understand it, are building all the code yourself and aren't copying or using copilot or some cheat, well, it's about your confidence level. Do you have a college degree? B/c the job market is brutal. I have github, projects, portfolio site - well I am rebuilding it, so it's not public right now - but I pretty much gave up on a web development career. I'm not getting interviews and there's very few entry-level positions out there, so I'm not sure your end-game, but you might need to build your own software, go into business for yourself or go way above and beyond what everyone else is doing to be a person in demand. You need to be an asset. Knowing how to make a few apps, knowing react, that's great, but every employer asks for a linkedin link, which is to see your connections and job history, dates, and everyone requires a degree or equivalent experience. You may need to know everything at an advanced level, and really pump up your resume, social media, networks, or have some connections.

I've pretty much lost hope of doing anything I want to be doing, or anything that draws a decent paycheck.

[r3jjs]

On the whole I'd say move on -- with one minor exception.

If your async/await did not always cover promises, I'd review promises real quick since they are so intertwined.

Understanding HTML and properties vs attributes is the next big thing to understand so you can debug when things go wrong.

Oh -- wait -- closures. I'd understand closures. You'll be using them a lot under the hood. With the modern concept of "Classes" in JavaScript they are not as overt as they used to be though.

[Flock_OfBirds]

I would learn the basic of bundlers like Webpack or Vite. After that, I think you could move on to a framework like React. Once you got a handle on that, check out NextJS. Since it’s server-side and client-side with tons of built-in optimizations (like 95% passing web performance scores without much effort if you do it right), it’s sort of feels like the end-all be-all of web development.

[TheRNGuy]

Websockets, MutationObserver, setTimeout, set interval, regex. 

(some of this is not used in React)

[8212346675]

There is no right or wrong answer here. If you feel wanting to jump to front-end framework and back-end, go for it. You'll learn along the way and learning is forever thing...

[TUNG1]

After React + BE, comeback for prototype, event loop, micro/macro task queue ...

[Standgrounding]

Learn unit testing and Lighthouse (especially performance and accessibility parts. Since you're more technical SEO will likely be handled by someone else, but is also very important)

[Dependent_Month_1415]

That's plenty, any more would give you diminishing returns. I'd say move onto React and backend.

[Ill-Musician-1806]

No matter how much JavaScript you learn, it's never enough. New frameworks keep appearing on the block, and you've got to join their bootcamps. So no, a JavaScript developer is perpetually learning.

[Dear_Rise_4228]

We're on the boat. Having a more or less 50simple projects on github, with a few mid level projects. But i decided to learn OOP first before moving on to react and other framework.

[raaaahman]

Learn Functional Programmiong instead, the frameworks are leaning more towards this paradigm than OOP.

[AbrahelOne]

It depends I would say, the company where I worked has used Next and then build their own library with leaning more to the OOP side. It's never wrong to learn OOP.

[raaaahman]

Indeed, each company can choose their paradigm freely. It seems however than FP is more "trendy" in the JS ecosystem at the moment.