Course Review: React — The Complete Guide 2023

I recently wrapped up a Udemy course that I had actually purchased 5 years ago. React — The Complete Guide 2023 (incl. React Router & Redux) by Academind on Udemy (I think it was just called “React — The Complete Guide” back when I originally bought it) has been in my backlog for awhile because in all honesty, I overestimated how strong my skills were at the time as compared to where they needed to be to tackle a topic as advanced as React.

So after stepping back and studying, and studying, and studying some more, I finally felt ready. I started the course in January 2023 and completed the last module right before the end of July, earning me a certificate of completion from Udemy. So with the course still fresh in mind, I figured it would be a good time to write down some of my thoughts for anyone else who might have their eye on this course.

The good

[embed]

Clocking in at nearly 50 hours of video content, exercises, practice sections, and projects, this is an absolute unit of a course. When they say “Complete Guide” they’re not kidding. The course covers everything you need to know to be proficient with React, plus a few topics that aren’t necessarily required, but are definitely helpful if you want to be a well-rounded React developer (i.e. Next.js and Typescript).

If you haven’t taken any courses from Academind before, I highly recommend looking into them. They’re well paced, the material is carefully explained and contextualized, the projects feel relevant and interesting, and there’s enough repetition and practice that the concepts will stick in your head. I’ve taken their Vue.js Complete Guide course and their Nuxt.js Complete Guide course, and both of those were very well done too.

I find Max’s teaching style really effective, as he often presents a problem or challenge first, then presents a simple solution that’s easy to follow along with. Then the next module might present a drawback to that simple solution, along with a slightly more complex solution. As the course continues, you begin to understand the ins and outs of each solution, when it might be appropriate to use, and what the drawbacks might be. In this way, you get to know all the tools in the toolbox at a comfortable pace.

In this course especially, I found that fundamental topics are revisited over and over. If you don’t get something on the first try, you’ll have ample opportunities to keep practicing throughout the course and by the end, it will feel like second nature.

The bad

I’ll be honest, there isn’t much to complain about with the course itself. I will gripe that Udemy’s pricing model is a little broken, so maybe wait for a sale or hunt around for a promo code. I think I paid around $15–20 for the course back when I bought it, although Udemy lists it on their site at a non-sale price of $169.99. With the amount of content and knowledge you’re getting, and the amount of time they’ve spent building and updating this course, that price isn’t unjustified, but I wouldn’t recommend paying it given how frequently Udemy runs sales, and how prolific their discount codes tend to be.

My one other gripe is that there are 2 optional sections included that clock in at about 8 hours total. If you’re strapped for time and don’t want to go through the full 50 hour course, they’re supposed to be a shorter version of the course that just cover the essentials to get you up and running with React. Unfortunately, to get a certificate of completion, you have to complete every single course module, even the optional ones as far as Udemy is concerned. Luckily you can just click the boxes rather than watch the entire video, but it’s still a bit of a pain to have to sit and click through them all.

Also, the course is being updated so frequently, that by the time I got to the end a bunch of modules had been added or re-done, so getting everything checked off for the certificate took a good bit of re-checking boxes (look I wasn’t that obsessed with getting the certificate, but you spend 50 hours working on something, you want to have something to show for it).

All that said, those have more to do with Udemy than with the course itself, so don’t let any of these minor gripes sway you away if you’re thinking about it.

The ugly

There was no ugly, the course is fantastic if you’re looking for an incredibly thorough React primer (I didn’t want to break with the theme for my headings though). So who should take this course?

If you’re aspiring to be a web developer, app developer, front-end developer, front-end engineer, or any permutation of those job titles, and you’re going the self-taught route, this is an excellent course to add to your roadmap. That said, if you don’t have a strong grasp of HTML/CSS/JavaScript already and you’re hoping that you can skip over that and go straight into React (like I was), I would recommend beefing up your skills a little first. Is it possible to learn React without having a strong grasp of those other skills? Through sheer force of will, maybe. But you won’t be doing yourself any favors.

If my skills aren’t quite there yet, what should I do to get there? In my opinion, it’s hard to beat https://scrimba.com/ (not an affiliate link, I’m just a huge fan). They have a Front-End Developer path in their courses that takes a very thorough look at HTML/CSS/JS and will get you where you need to be. The best part: the IDE you use for practicing is integrated right into the videos, so no need to try and juggle VS Code next to a bunch of browser windows. Everything happens right in the same browser window, meaning sitting down to study is about as frictionless as it gets.

I took their “Learn JavaScript” course and their “Learn React” and “Advanced React” courses before tackling “React — The Complete Guide.” I would absolutely recommend the “Learn JavaScript” and “Learn React” courses if you already have a good grasp of HTML/CSS but are unsure about your JS skills. It will get you where you need to be. However, I found their “Advanced React” course a little lackluster (it’s been a year so it may have improved since my experience).

The Outro

So there you have it. Loads of content, just wait for a sale or hunt around for a promo to get around Udemy’s silly pricing model. If you feel good about your HTML/CSS/JS skills and want to level up, this is an excellent course to tackle.

On the other hand, if this course seems interesting to you but your skills aren’t quite there yet, go give https://scrimba.com a look and try out some of their material, they can absolutely help you skill up to where you need to be.