Blogged Answers: Resources for Learning Redux

This is a post in the Blogged Answers series.


Advice and resources for getting started with Redux

Note Updated 2020-12 with current resource links and guidance

When Should I Learn Redux? 🔗︎

Our recommendation is to focus on learning React itself very well first. Once you have a good grasp on React, you'll have a better understanding of why a state management library like Redux can be useful. Also, while Redux is simple in some ways, it can be complex in others, and it can have a steep-ish learning curve depending on your background.

Redux may not seem very useful with small or toy apps. The typical example is a Todo list, but that's just to illustrate the basic mechanics and data flow. At that level, the benefits of Redux aren't very apparent, and the amount of overhead will definitely seem large. But, once you understand the principles, you can consistently apply them no matter how big an app is.

If you're not sure whether you should learn Redux yet, here's some suggested resources:

Suggested Resources for Learning Redux 🔗︎

Once you are ready to learn Redux, start with the official docs at http://redux.js.org/ . In particular, we've rewritten the core docs tutorials from scratch in 2020, and they show our latest recommendations for how to learn and use Redux:

  • "Redux Essentials" tutorial: teaches "how to use Redux, the right way", by building a real-world app using Redux Toolkit
  • "Redux Fundamentals" tutorial: teaches "how Redux works, from the bottom up", by showing how to write Redux code by hand, why standard usage patterns exist, and how Redux Toolkit simplifies those patterns

Also, the Redux Style Guide docs page lists our recommended patterns and best practices for learning Redux.

We've recently created a new official package called Redux Toolkit, which is intended to help simplify common tasks like setting up a Redux store and writing immutable update logic in reducers. I highly recommend that you try it out.

The React Redux docs are available as well.

Other Redux Tutorials 🔗︎

If you want to see the original thinking behind how Redux works, watch Dan Abramov's tutorial videos on Egghead.io.

I gave a 45-minute "Redux Fundamentals" presentation at Reactathon 2018, which includes links to both the video of the talk and the slides.

I've also put the slides and exercises for my "Redux Fundamentals" workshop online. It's a greatly expanded version of the material from the Reactathon presentation.

Dave Ceddia's post A Complete React Redux Tutorial for 2019 is an extensive, friendly, and clearly-written intro to the basics of Redux and how to use it with React. (You may also want to check out his earlier posts What Does Redux Do? (and when should you use it?) and How Redux Works: A Counter-Example.)

Tania Rascia wrote Using Redux with React: Complete Tutorial with Real-World Examples, which quickly introduces Redux, React-Redux, Redux Toolkit, and the React-Redux connect and hooks APIs

And finally, my "Idiomatic Redux" series has articles that go deeper into different Redux usage patterns, the history and intent behidn Redux's design, and what I consider to be the right ways to use Redux.

From there, my React/Redux links list has sections on Redux Reducers and Selectors, Redux Architecture, and Redux Side Effects, and a lot more.


This is a post in the Blogged Answers series. Other posts in this series: