Frontend for backend developers

Six lessons, each short and each ending in something that runs. They assume you can program and skip the basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript syntax deliberately — you can look up <div>.

The question underneath the whole course: how do the DOM and your JavaScript stay in sync? Every lesson is an answer to some part of it.

Lessons

1. The stack, from the top

   Why a build step exists at all, what the DOM actually is, and what the browser really receives.

   a running Vite + React + TS project
2. Tailwind, and why the classes look insane

   The case for utility classes, made properly — then the three-step v4 install.

   a styled page, and an answer to "isn't this just inline styles"
3. A component is a function

   UI = f(state). JSX, props, typed component signatures, and useState.

   your first two components, one using the other
4. Props down, events up

   Lifting state, one-way data flow, prop drilling, and the composition fix most people skip.

   components that talk to each other
5. Context, and when not to use it

   How context works, what it costs, and the harder skill of declining to reach for it.

   a working theme toggle, and an argument against your own code
6. TanStack Start: the server comes back

   File-based routing, loaders, server functions, and where the client/server boundary actually falls.

   the ability to read the real work repo

Reference — keep these open