So, you are wondering “how long does it take to learn redux”? As you probably could have guessed, that answer depends. Primarily, it depends on your prior HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React knowledge, programming experience, learning methods, hours spent coding and your own innate intelligence.
I’m not going to sugar-coat it, Redux is actually pretty dang confusing to learn. Mainly because the programming patterns used in Redux seem unnecessarily complex.
In this article, we are going to break down exactly how much time it takes to learn Redux and what you need to know first to really understand the library and learn faster.
Luckily, you can learn Redux much faster than a programming language like C, or a JavaScript library like React.
What Should You Know Before Learning Redux?
React
Before we dive into how long it takes to learn Redux, you want to have a really solid understanding of React. Although Redux can be used as a stand-alone library without implementation within a framework, it has mainly become popularized because of its utility with Reactjs.
Since React does not have built-in state management unlike its competitor Angular, utilization of libraries like Redux are crucial in building complex, scalable web apps with React.
However! Before jumping into React, I highly recommend you learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and functional programming concepts well. All of which are outlined in my article, how much time does it take to learn Reactjs?
Trust me on this, you don’t want to skip steps. Learning programming is hard enough. If you try to learn concepts without having the fundamentals down, it is just going to take you longer to learn.
State Management
On top of learning React, you are going to want to understand state management systems. Most importantly, you will want to understand how state management systems fix the problems you face when using React without one.
This is also why learning React first is a great idea. If you have built any non-trivial React app, you will understand that passing props around in React quickly becomes tedious and unmanageable.
At the core, you can think of Redux as a small database stored on the frontend. It acts as a centralized ‘cloud’ that stores the state of your application so it can be retrieved from anywhere.
When working with a library like React that breaks everything into isolated components, this can be extremely helpful.
Once you learn why Redux is so useful in an application, it will make learning Redux much quicker and easier.
How Much Time Does It Take To Learn Redux?
If you have a strong grasp of the concepts I mentioned above, you should be able to learn Redux in about 1-2 weeks. At least, that is how long it took me.
The best way to learn is to follow along with high-quality, up-to-date video tutorials like this one. Then build your own personal project, using that code base as a reference guide along with the official redux documentation.
Following along with a video is great because it helps get you familiarized with the library in a relatively easy and stress-free environment. After that, it makes it more manageable to create your own project with React and Redux. If you can successfully build your own project, congrats, you have officially learned Redux!
Here is the personal project I built. It is an algorithm visualizer that utilizes React, TypeScript, Redux and TTD. After learning React well, it was easy to learn the rest of those technologies together.
Building a project like this was truly the key to me learning Redux extremely well. It also would have been a complete nightmare to pass the state of this project around, which really helped demonstrate why Redux was so important.
Ultimately, the number of days mentioned to learn Redux is irrelevant. It is just a loose guideline to understanding roughly how long it will take. It could take you significantly less or more time depending on your previous knowledge, age, and ability to learn.
If you want to learn Redux quickly, practice every day and build as many projects as you can. Only through practice and reading can you become a great developer!
Summary
So, how long does it take to learn Redux? Well, if you have a strong foundation in why state management is important, React and everything you need to learn before it, how much time it takes to learn Redux would be around 1-2 weeks.
However, it depends on how often you practice, and whether you are continuously challenging yourself or not.
So that’s pretty much it! If you have any questions, leave them down below. As always, happy coding!
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