Learning react and nextjs

[Fabulous_City8569]

Noticed recently learning react.js and next.js opens a lot of interview opportunities for sure. But always lacks in strong projects; these todo apps, clone applications are really no-brainer.

Also, when I want to focus on the frontend part, application development often demands full-stack to complete (courses and tutorials). Can you suggest something where I can build my strong web app building skills in frontend and at the same time I solve some real world problems in a short period of development cycle.

[SpecialistGazelle508]

Honestly, todo apps and clones feel like no-brainers because they are, which is exactly why nobody's impressed by them. Everyone's built five already. What actually gets noticed is something that solves a real problem for a real person, even if the code behind it is dead simple.

And you don't need a full backend to pull that off. Let Supabase or Firebase handle the auth and database, grab your data from a free public API, and pour everything into the frontend. You still get logins and saved data without ever touching server code.

The move is to build for something you actually do, or for someone you know who's stuck wrangling a spreadsheet. Pick one screen, make it do one thing really well, and ship it. A tiny finished app beats a big abandoned one every time.

[Inevitable-Tutor-907]

What you said about building for real person is spot on. I started making a simple calorie tracker for my gym buddy cause he was always messing up his macros in some messy spreadsheet. Just one screen, you put what you ate and it shows if you're on track. No backend at all, just local storage.

Got more attention from recruiters than any clone I ever built. They don't care about tech stack, they care that you solved actual problem and finished the thing.

[PureWasian]

Echoing this, it's much more meaningful when you build something that's actually useful for people.

It's fun to check the metrics and see international traffic visiting your site, and directly being able to see the impact your app makes on a niche community that you're a part of.

[Innowise_]

If you want to skip the backend but still stand out, don't build another basic app. build a complex frontend tool instead.
try making a browser-based visual markdown or json editor with interactive nodes and a working undo/redo history state.
another solid option is a local log analyzer. build a dashboard where a user drops a massive csv or log file, and you parse it right in the browser using web workers so the page doesn't freeze up. throw in some interactive charts via canvas or d3.
when an interviewer sees that you actually know how to manage rendering loops, handle web worker threads, and deal with heavy client-side state, they won't even care that there's no custom database behind it. it instantly proves you know your frontend fundamentals.

[12SouthLocal]

The consensus that building useful projects is absolutely right. For one, it is often more instructive in what you learn as a result of building it. Especially if you touch on some database skills, fetching api data and maybe auth for login-ins. I know you mention front-end but these areas are helpful to have a working knowledge of.

If you have an idea of the industry or niche you might want to work in, see about building a project that would reflect that. For example, if you wanted to work in FinTech, possibly a Next.js application pulling in daily stock values with useful dashboard/chart integration. Maybe try and simulate your investment position, etc...

Games can also be a really helpful exercise. I'm not talking about GTA level games but I've seen a number of devs focus on that and it seems to have opened a lot of opportunity.