beginner · mobile
React Native, from a blank machine to a shipped app
The complete path into cross-platform mobile: what React Native is, how to get a machine that actually builds, and how to ship something to a real device.
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By Amit Chakraborty — Kolkata, India · Remote worldwide
Who this is for
career_switcher
What you will be able to do
Build, debug and ship a React Native app to TestFlight and Play internal testing, and explain what runs on which thread.
Syllabus — 12 chapters
- 1. What a React Native app actually is — Separate the JavaScript thread, the native threads and the renderer, so that every later chapter has somewhere to put itself.
- 2. A machine that builds: Node, JDK, Xcode and the Android SDK — Get a working toolchain on macOS, Windows and Linux, and learn to identify which layer is broken when a build fails.
- 3. Your first screen: components, props and state — Render something real, change it, and understand exactly why the screen updated.
- 4. Layout on a phone: the Flexbox rules that cover almost everything — Lay out any common screen without guessing, and debug a layout that collapsed.
- 5. Navigation: stacks, tabs and the back button people press — Build multi-screen navigation and handle the hardware back button correctly on Android.
- 6. Lists that stay smooth — Render long lists with FlatList, understand keys and re-render cost, and measure before optimising.
- 7. Talking to a server: fetch, loading, errors and offline — Handle the four states every network call has, instead of only the happy one.
- 8. Storage on device: AsyncStorage, MMKV and SQLite — Choose a storage layer deliberately and know what each one costs.
- 9. Native modules without fear — Understand what a call across the native boundary costs and recognise the cases that genuinely need one.
- 10. Debugging: Hermes, DevTools and reading a native stack trace — Diagnose a crash that produces no JavaScript error.
- 11. Building and shipping: signing, TestFlight and Play internal testing — Get a build onto a stranger device through the official channels.
- 12. The performance budget: cold start, time to interactive and 60fps — Set numeric performance targets and measure against them on a cheap Android phone.
0 of 12 published. A new chapter every Monday morning. Free to read.
Learn it free, elsewhere too
The documentation, videos, books and practice sites worth your time on this subject. All free. None of it is mine.