I've been trying to understand how state management works in a production-level React app, but every tutorial or article I find just covers the basics—either using React hooks or a popular state management library (like Redux/Zustand) with simple examples like a counter app.

But what about real-world concerns like:

• Managing API fetches efficiently

• Syncing state with the server

• Deciding when to fetch new data

• Handling cache invalidation

• Keeping UI state in sync with real-time updates

My Context:

I'm building an event management web app with basic CRUD operations (creating, deleting, editing events). Each event also has a list of live attendees, so I’m using Socket.IO for real-time updates.

I initially used Zustand for state management, and while it works fine for managing local state, things got messy when handling server sync:

• I felt like I was doing a lot of hacky workarounds.

• Navigating between pages triggered unnecessary re-fetching of data.

• I had no structured way to manage server updates efficiently.

What I'm Looking For:

I'm not looking for another counter app or to-do list tutorial. I want resources (codebases, articles, tutorials, GitHub repos—anything) that show how to handle state in a real-world React app with:

• Frequent API fetches

• Real-time data syncing

• Cache management & invalidation

• Best practices for structured state handling

How do you guys handle state in your production apps? Any recommendations?

Edit (After Reading Comments & Feedback)

Huge thanks to everyone for the quick and insightful responses! Your suggestions have given me a much clearer direction.

I'll be learning React Query (TanStack Query) to properly manage server state and revisiting how I structure global vs. local state. Your insights on where to store different types of state were super helpful.

One More Ask:

If anyone knows of a FOSS React web app (preferably one with user authentication, API fetching, and structured state management), I'd love to check out the code and learn how it's done in real-world applications. Any recommendations?