The true potential of Next.js Layouts (+ my next.js course ๐Ÿ‘€)


Hey Reader,

I have some exciting news ๐Ÿฅณ.

I have been working hard on launching the Modern Full Stack Next.js Course โ†—๏ธ.

It's a course that teaches you to build and deploy modern full stack Next.js Production-ready apps.

It is coming along well and I am taking the extra time to perfect it. Itโ€™s set to launch in April, and I canโ€™t wait for yโ€™all to check it out!

I plan to share extra bonuses ๐ŸŽ and nuggets for folks on the waitlist so click this magic link to join the waitlist โ†—๏ธ.โ€‹

Weekly Snack: The Secret Magic of Layouts ๐Ÿฟ

Despite working on Next.js for the past few years, I still made a mistake of realizing the true potential of Layouts.โ€‹

What are Layouts?

In Next.js, a Layout is a file that lets you wrap a group of pages.

If you think Layouts are just for common styling and shared elements, think againโ€”they do so much more.

Take my Next.js Course Platform, for example.

The Challenge

When a student clicks a lesson in the curriculum side nav, we donโ€™t want the entire curriculum to reload with the new page. If there are 100 lessons in the side nav, why reload them every time? That data isnโ€™t changing.

The Solution

This is where Layouts come in! By creating a child layout, I can keep the curriculum side nav from reloading unnecessarily and move the data fetching to Layouts as well.

Notice the data fetching being moved to Layouts which means lessons will be fetched only once on page load ๐Ÿ†.

Hereโ€™s how:

Moving on to our weekly news,

๐Ÿš€ Latest Frontend News

โ€‹A Library with beautiful React Components

Next.js just published a detailed guide on Building API's with Next.jsโ€‹

โ€‹Next.js 15.2 is out and even though this may seem like a minor version, it isn't!

  • ๐Ÿ’… The Error UI is fully designed and revamped - looks slick
  • โŽ Async metadata will no longer block page rendering
  • โšก Faster compile times thanks to Turbopack
  • ๐Ÿคฏ Experimental support for React's new View Transitions API

I already upgraded my Next.js Course Platform to 15.2 and it is very fast and way better!

Claude 3.7 is now available on Trae! - A competitor of Cursor AI and an IDE as well

TanStack Solid Router is now Available ๐ŸŽ‰ More info hereโ€‹

TanStack Form 0.43 is out now! with Stricter types

You can now Self-Host Convex and is fully Open Source and they have a detailed onboarding tutorial as well

๐ŸŽฅ Weekly Youtube Videos

Check it out and subscribe to my channel โ†—๏ธ for more Frontend, Leadership and Career Development content.

Create React App is Dead, Here's a New Way to Build React Apps

video previewโ€‹

Interviewed Lee Rob, VP of Product at Vercel

video previewโ€‹

What do you think of today's Newsletter? Simply click on one of the links below.

โ€‹๐Ÿ”ฅ Love it!โ€‹

โ€‹๐Ÿ˜ Itโ€™s okayโ€‹

โ€‹๐Ÿ‘Ž Not goodโ€‹

All past newsletters can be found here.

You can email me at me@kulkarniankita.com to advertise/sponsor the newsletter.

Ankita Kulkarni

Join 9200+ subscribers reading by weekly personalized Newsletter that helps developers level up their skills through weekly Frontend and Leadership Snacks. You get a deep dive into a Tech topic, Actionable tips to excel in your career and a toolbox!

Read more from Ankita Kulkarni
cut ai bill in half

Hey Reader, I checked my Claude usage last week and found out Iโ€™d been paying max-effort prices to rename variables. Three small changes later, my bill is half what it was. This week: the 3 fixes that saved me the most, a Next.js patch you need today, and Opus 5.5 making motion graphics by writing code. One small favour first: Iโ€™m building my AI course and need your help. It will only take 60 seconds. โ†’ Click here for feedback PRESENTED BY SONARQUBE We all hate security scanners that flood...

Hey Reader, I've been heads down focusing on crafting my AI course. I'm still in early stages and need your help. Can you fill this quick survey that should take less than a minute and give me your feedback? โ†’ Click here for feedback PRESENTED BY SONARQUBE We all hate security scanners that flood our PRs with false positives. It's the quickest way to get a dev to ignore alerts altogether. SonarQube Hunter Agent is different. Itโ€™s an AI-powered agent that hunts for business logic flaws and...

Hey Reader, The biggest challenge with AI right now isn't building from scratch or brainstorming, it's great at both. It's building real intuition for how things should work. Take how TikTok and YouTube handle video. If they served the same file to every device, tablet, mobile, desktop, even a slow 3G connection, users would drop off fast. So how would you solve that? Don't worry, let me show you. Here's how to architect for exactly this challenge. PRESENTED BY IMAGEKIT Don't throw raw MP4s...