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By Addy Osmani and Hassan Djirdeh

Code Smart, Scale Fast, Conquer Challenges

Learn tools and techniques to build and maintain large-scale React web applications.

Or  for free.
Building Large Scale Web Apps: A React Field Guide. By Addy Osmani and Hassan Djirdeh

“Building Large Scale Web Apps” is a toolkit to managing large-scale React applications.

React as a library allows you to start building user interfaces quickly and easily. But how do things scale as an application grows? How do you ensure that your codebase remains manageable, your performance metrics stay on point, and your team continues to work cohesively as the project evolves?

In this book, you'll uncover strategies that industry professionals use to build scalable, performant, and maintainable React applications, all without becoming overwhelmed by complexity.

Together, we've spent well over two decades building within or consulting for

The Google logo.
The Doordash logo.
The Instacart logo.
The Netflix logo.
The X logo.
The YouTube logo.
The Shopify logo.
The Ebay logo.

One day, a Malaysian-Indian corporate lawyer, (played by Arjun Das ), arrives with a notice: the estate has been sold to a Singapore-based agri-conglomerate, Nusantara Green . All workers will be evicted in 90 days. The land will be leveled for a mega-palm oil refinery. Arul’s mother hands him a crumbling land deed from 1920—written in Tamil and Malay, but legally void under modern law.

The tribunal rules against Nusantara Green. Not full ownership, but a landmark “Cultural Land Trust”—the land in Malaysia and Indonesia will be preserved for small-scale farming, managed by the original families. Arul and Devi are offered jobs as advisors.

Given the title, the story is imagined as a pan-Indian social drama (in Hindi/Tamil/Telugu) with a dedicated Indonesian subtitle track, emphasizing themes of land, roots, and cross-cultural identity. (भूमि / "Land") Tagline: Where your roots end, your story begins. Language: Hindi & Tamil (bilingual) Subtitles: Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) Genre: Social Drama / Migration / Family Saga Runtime: 152 minutes SYNOPSIS Bhoomi tells the story of Arul Selvam (played by Dhanush or Vicky Kaushal ), a third-generation Tamil estate worker in Malaysia, and Devi (played by Sai Pallavi or Mrunal Thakur ), a Javanese-Indonesian agricultural graduate who dreams of reclaiming her family’s lost land in Sumatra. When a multinational corporation tries to erase both their ancestral homes for a palm oil plantation, they unite to fight a legal and emotional battle across three countries—Malaysia, Indonesia, and India. The film’s Indonesian subtitles are not an afterthought but a narrative tool: key dialogues about land rights are deliberately left untranslated in Hindi/Tamil, forcing Indonesian viewers (and the Indonesian characters) to lean into universal emotions of loss and resistance. FULL STORY (Act by Act) ACT 1: The Root Opening Scene (Malaysia, 2024): Arul Selvam, 32, works on a sprawling oil palm estate in Sabah. His family has worked this land since 1920, when his great-grandfather arrived from Tamil Nadu as indentured labor. Arul sings old Tamil folk songs about mann (soil) while tapping rubber trees—a dying art. He lives in a line house with his aging mother, Meenakshi (played by Revathi ), who still prays to a karuppannasamy statue made of red earth.

Arul plants a sapling of a native Malaysian fruit tree (a durian ) on the estate, next to a sapling of an Indonesian rambutan . His mother, now frail, places a handful of Tamil soil and Javanese soil together in a brass pot. Devi translates for a group of visiting Indonesian students: “Ini bukan tanah yang menang. Ini tanah yang pulang.” (“This is not land that won. This is land that came home.”)

Would you like a screenplay outline, character breakdowns, or a scene-by-scene script for the first 15 minutes?

She tracks down Arul via a Malaysian Tamil Facebook group. At first, Arul is cynical. “Law is for the rich, Devi. My people have nothing but debt.” But when his mother is forcibly removed from their home by bulldozers (a harrowing, wordless sequence scored only by a nadaswaram ), Arul snaps. He agrees to fight.

Devi, 28, is a brilliant agronomist. She returns to her village in Lampung to find her father, Pak Warno (played by Slamet Rahardjo ), chaining himself to an ancient banyan tree. Their rice fields—registered under his grandmother’s name—have been claimed by Nusantara Green using a colonial-era land title. Devi uses her degree to analyze soil samples, proving the land is fertile for padi (rice), not palm. But the company has bought local officials. Her only hope: find a legal precedent in another former colony. ACT 2: The Uprooting Meeting (Chennai, India): Devi travels to Chennai to research land rights in the Madras High Court archives. There, she discovers a 1947 case where Tamil estate workers in Malaysia won a symbolic victory using a clause about “ancestral emotional attachment.” The lawyer on that case was Advocate Krishnamurthy —Arul’s late grandfather.

Some other things!

Descriptive content, continous updates, and soundbites from industry professionals.

Descriptive, not prescriptive

When explaining content, we follow a descriptive approach, not prescriptive. In other words, we don’t tell you what specific tools or libraries you have to use to be successful. Rather, we focus on explaining a concept and employ certain libraries or tools to illustrate that concept.

React-focused with universal concepts

While the book is React-focused, it teaches universal concepts that transcend all web development frameworks. It's designed to enhance your understanding of building web applications that are scalable, maintainable, and adaptable, regardless of the specific technology stack.

Continous, frequent updates

Purchasing the e-book gives you access to all new content, edits, and improvements forever. In fact, we're currently working on adding three new chapters soon — Routing, User-centric API design, and React in 2024. Check out the Changelog to follow along on all the updates we'll make.

Soundbites from industry professionals

In the book, we share soundbites and thoughts from industry professionals. These soundbites are shared from start-up owners and software engineers who work at Doordash, Netflix, Spotify, and more.

Back cover of physical book
Front cover of physical book
Back cover of physical book
Contents of physical book

Industry nuggets

Nuggets of wisdom from industry professionals

Jem Young

Maxi Ferreira

Emma Bostian

Zeno Rocha

Francine Navarro

Jeffrey Peng

And others!

Film India Bhoomi Subtitle Indonesia Here

One day, a Malaysian-Indian corporate lawyer, (played by Arjun Das ), arrives with a notice: the estate has been sold to a Singapore-based agri-conglomerate, Nusantara Green . All workers will be evicted in 90 days. The land will be leveled for a mega-palm oil refinery. Arul’s mother hands him a crumbling land deed from 1920—written in Tamil and Malay, but legally void under modern law.

The tribunal rules against Nusantara Green. Not full ownership, but a landmark “Cultural Land Trust”—the land in Malaysia and Indonesia will be preserved for small-scale farming, managed by the original families. Arul and Devi are offered jobs as advisors. Film India Bhoomi Subtitle Indonesia

Given the title, the story is imagined as a pan-Indian social drama (in Hindi/Tamil/Telugu) with a dedicated Indonesian subtitle track, emphasizing themes of land, roots, and cross-cultural identity. (भूमि / "Land") Tagline: Where your roots end, your story begins. Language: Hindi & Tamil (bilingual) Subtitles: Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) Genre: Social Drama / Migration / Family Saga Runtime: 152 minutes SYNOPSIS Bhoomi tells the story of Arul Selvam (played by Dhanush or Vicky Kaushal ), a third-generation Tamil estate worker in Malaysia, and Devi (played by Sai Pallavi or Mrunal Thakur ), a Javanese-Indonesian agricultural graduate who dreams of reclaiming her family’s lost land in Sumatra. When a multinational corporation tries to erase both their ancestral homes for a palm oil plantation, they unite to fight a legal and emotional battle across three countries—Malaysia, Indonesia, and India. The film’s Indonesian subtitles are not an afterthought but a narrative tool: key dialogues about land rights are deliberately left untranslated in Hindi/Tamil, forcing Indonesian viewers (and the Indonesian characters) to lean into universal emotions of loss and resistance. FULL STORY (Act by Act) ACT 1: The Root Opening Scene (Malaysia, 2024): Arul Selvam, 32, works on a sprawling oil palm estate in Sabah. His family has worked this land since 1920, when his great-grandfather arrived from Tamil Nadu as indentured labor. Arul sings old Tamil folk songs about mann (soil) while tapping rubber trees—a dying art. He lives in a line house with his aging mother, Meenakshi (played by Revathi ), who still prays to a karuppannasamy statue made of red earth. One day, a Malaysian-Indian corporate lawyer, (played by

Arul plants a sapling of a native Malaysian fruit tree (a durian ) on the estate, next to a sapling of an Indonesian rambutan . His mother, now frail, places a handful of Tamil soil and Javanese soil together in a brass pot. Devi translates for a group of visiting Indonesian students: “Ini bukan tanah yang menang. Ini tanah yang pulang.” (“This is not land that won. This is land that came home.”) Arul’s mother hands him a crumbling land deed

Would you like a screenplay outline, character breakdowns, or a scene-by-scene script for the first 15 minutes?

She tracks down Arul via a Malaysian Tamil Facebook group. At first, Arul is cynical. “Law is for the rich, Devi. My people have nothing but debt.” But when his mother is forcibly removed from their home by bulldozers (a harrowing, wordless sequence scored only by a nadaswaram ), Arul snaps. He agrees to fight.

Devi, 28, is a brilliant agronomist. She returns to her village in Lampung to find her father, Pak Warno (played by Slamet Rahardjo ), chaining himself to an ancient banyan tree. Their rice fields—registered under his grandmother’s name—have been claimed by Nusantara Green using a colonial-era land title. Devi uses her degree to analyze soil samples, proving the land is fertile for padi (rice), not palm. But the company has bought local officials. Her only hope: find a legal precedent in another former colony. ACT 2: The Uprooting Meeting (Chennai, India): Devi travels to Chennai to research land rights in the Madras High Court archives. There, she discovers a 1947 case where Tamil estate workers in Malaysia won a symbolic victory using a clause about “ancestral emotional attachment.” The lawyer on that case was Advocate Krishnamurthy —Arul’s late grandfather.

Who we are

Heyo! We're Addy & Hassan — Engineers & Educators.

Profile picture of Addy Osmani

AddyOsmani

I'm an engineering leader working on Google Chrome and I lead up Chrome's Developer Experience organization, helping reduce the friction for developers to build great user experiences.

HassanDjirdeh

I'm a senior software engineer and have built large production web applications at organizations like Doordash, Instacart, and Shopify.

Profile picture of Addy Osmani

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“Building Large Scale Web Apps” is available in either an e-book or as a physical copy.

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Physical copy (softcover)

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$49.99USD

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  • Interested in both the e-book and physical copy? Purchase both separately!
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