Effective Code Organization in React JS: Ensuring Maintainability

Writing functional React code is one thing—keeping it organized, readable, and scalable is another.

Good code structure helps teams collaborate efficiently and makes your app easier to debug, test, and grow over time.

Let’s explore how to structure your React projects for maximum maintainability.

🗂 Recommended Folder Structure

src/
├── assets/         # Images, fonts, icons
├── components/     # Reusable UI components
├── pages/          # Page-level components (route-level)
├── layouts/        # Common layout wrappers (Header, Footer)
├── hooks/          # Custom React hooks
├── context/        # Context providers
├── services/       # API or utility services
├── utils/          # Utility functions and helpers
├── constants/      # App-wide constants
├── routes/         # Route configuration
├── theme/          # Styles, variables, theming configs
├── App.jsx         # Main app component
└── main.jsx        # React DOM entry point

📦 Component Folder Example

Each component should ideally live in its own folder:

/components
  └── Button/
      ├── index.jsx
      ├── Button.jsx
      ├── Button.module.css
      └── Button.test.jsx

Benefits:

Separation of concerns
Easier testing and styling
Readable component APIs

⚛️ Smart vs. Dumb Components

Smart components (containers): Handle data fetching, business logic
Dumb components (UI): Only receive props and display data

Organize accordingly:

/pages/ProfilePage.jsx      // Smart
/components/ProfileCard.jsx // Dumb

📚 Naming Conventions

✅ Components: PascalCase (e.g., UserCard.jsx)
✅ Folders: kebab-case or PascalCase (team-dependent)
✅ Variables/functions: camelCase
✅ Constants: UPPER_SNAKE_CASE

🔁 Reusability Best Practices

Use a shared components/ folder for reusable UI
Extract repeating logic into custom hooks/
Store API calls in services/ to keep components clean

Example:

// services/userService.js
export const fetchUser = (id) => fetch(`/api/users/${id}`);

🧪 Testing Folder Structure

Place tests next to the component they test, or in a parallel __tests__ folder:

/components/Button/Button.test.jsx

/__tests__/components/Button.test.jsx

🌐 Global Styles & Theming

Organize your styles:

/theme/
├── variables.css
├── theme.js
├── breakpoints.js

Use CSS Modules, Tailwind, or styled-components consistently across your app.

🔐 Environment & Config

Store configuration in a .env file and access via:

process.env.REACT_APP_API_URL

Don't hardcode secrets in the codebase.

📦 Bonus Tip: Use Barrels (index.js)

Simplify imports with barrel files:

// components/index.js
export { default as Button } from './Button';
export { default as Card } from './Card';

Then:

import { Button } from '@/components';

🙏 Thank You!

Thank you for reading!

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please share it with your network and stay tuned for more insights on software development. I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn or have you follow my journey on HashNode for regular updates.

Happy Coding!
Mitesh Kukdeja