Core React Hooks: State, Synchronization, and Refs

Hooks are the foundation of modern React development. FAANG interview panels evaluate whether you truly grasp the synchronization mental model of useEffect rather than treating it as a drop-in replacement for componentDidMount or componentDidUpdate.

These lessons break down lazy initial state evaluation, race conditions handled via AbortController cleanups, infinite re-render loops caused by object dependencies, and how useRef provides mutable container persistence without triggering component re-renders.