React Router Basics
React Router adds navigation to a React app without full page reloads. It makes a single-page application feel more like a multi-page website.
Core Explanation
React Router adds navigation to a React app without full page reloads. It makes a single-page application feel more like a multi-page website.
Once routing is added, React apps can support sections such as Home, About, Courses, Products, and Settings without traditional page reloads.
Worked Examples
Use the examples below to connect the theory with syntax. The first example shows the basic pattern. The second moves closer to how the idea often appears in real applications.
Example A
npm install react-router-dom
Example B
<Route path="/about" element={<About />} />Try changing variable names, labels, values, or returned JSX in each example. Even a small change helps you understand the pattern more deeply.
Mini Simulation
Mini Navigation Demo
Switch between Home and About screens.
How It Fits Into a Real App
React concepts become more useful when you connect them to actual application design. For example, a dashboard might combine reusable components, state, events, conditional rendering, and API fetching all on one screen. A learning portal may add routing, validation, shared state, and persistence on top of that.
This lesson should therefore be thought of as part of a larger React workflow. The goal is not just to memorize syntax, but to understand when this concept helps make the interface clearer, more interactive, or more maintainable.
Lesson Summary
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to recognize the role of React Router Basics, read common examples confidently, and adapt the pattern into a small practice component of your own.
Exercises
- Practice task 1 for React Router Basics.
- Practice task 2 for React Router Basics.
- Practice task 3 for React Router Basics.
- Practice task 4 for React Router Basics.
- Practice task 5 for React Router Basics.
Practice before moving on
Rebuild one of the examples from memory, then modify it slightly. That is one of the fastest ways to turn recognition into working skill.