Today I Split My First Huge Component from the Course Into Clean, Reusable Components

Source: Dev.to

The Starting Point: One Giant File From the Course 😅

Inside the course, they gave me a full working example that included:

• Navbar
• Search
• Movie List
• Watched Movies
• Summary
• Toggling sections
• Movie cards
• Watched movie cards
• Average ratings
• All useState logic

Everything was inside one massive component. This wasn’t a mistake — it was intentional. The goal was to force me to practice splitting, and honestly, it was the perfect challenge.

My Task: Split the Huge Component Into Logical Parts 🧩

Instead of splitting randomly, I followed a clear rule: each component should represent a meaningful part of the UI. Here’s how I broke it down:

NavBar Section

• Logo
• Search
• NumResults

All of these are related to navigation, so they stay together.

Main Section

Holds the two major panels:

• ListBox (the movies list)
• WatchedBox (the watched movies section)

Movie Listing Components

Inside ListBox, I split:

• MovieList
• Movie

Watched Section Components

Inside WatchedBox, I split:

• WatchedMoviesSummary
• WatchedMovieList
• WatchedMovie

By splitting this way, the structure became crystal clear.

The Final Component Structure I Created

App
 ├─ NavBar
 │   ├─ Logo
 │   ├─ Search
 │   └─ NumResults
 ├─ Main
 │   ├─ ListBox
 │   │    ├─ MovieList
 │   │    └─ Movie
 │   └─ WatchedBox
 │        ├─ WatchedMoviesSummary
 │        ├─ WatchedMovieList
 │        └─ WatchedMovie

This is clean, readable, and exactly what the course wanted me to practice.

What I Learned Today

⭐ 1. Huge Components Are a Starting Point
The course intentionally gave me a huge component so I could learn how to break it down myself.

⭐ 2. Splitting Should Be Logical, Not Random
A component must represent a real “piece” of the UI.

⭐ 3. Medium Components Make Everything Easier
Clear, understandable blocks → better developer experience.

⭐ 4. After Splitting, State Becomes Easier
Each piece controls its own logic instead of everything mixing together.

Final Thoughts 💭

Today was not just a coding exercise — it was a mindset shift. I learned how to:

• take a large messy component,
• understand its structure,
• identify natural boundaries,
• and break it into clean, reusable parts.

This exercise improved my React thinking more than anything else. Tomorrow, I’ll continue the next part of my course and apply the same principles to new features.

🔚 Note

If you want to know which framework and approach I used to split this huge component, then definitely read this blog post.