This article summarizes the DEV post “How to Use React Query for Efficient Data Fetching” and focuses on a minimal, production-ready setup.

Why React Query (TanStack Query)

  • Handles fetching, caching, retries, background refresh, and deduping.
  • Removes useEffect + manual loading/error state boilerplate.
  • Scales to pagination, infinite scroll, and SSR hydration.

3-step setup

  1. Install: npm install @tanstack/react-query
  2. Create a client and wrap your app:
import { QueryClient, QueryClientProvider } from "@tanstack/react-query";
const queryClient = new QueryClient();
const App = () => (
  <QueryClientProvider client={queryClient}>
    <MyComponent />
  </QueryClientProvider>
);
  1. Fetch with useQuery:
import { useQuery } from "@tanstack/react-query";

function UsersList() {
  const { data, isLoading, error } = useQuery({
    queryKey: ["users"],
    queryFn: () => fetch("/api/users").then((r) => r.json()),
  });
  if (isLoading) return <p>Loading…</p>;
  if (error) return <p>Something went wrong</p>;
  return <ul>{data.map((u) => <li key={u.id}>{u.name}</li>)}</ul>;
}

Features you get “for free”

  • Auto refetch on window focus/network reconnect.
  • Stale-while-revalidate caching with configurable TTLs.
  • Retries with exponential backoff for transient failures.
  • Query invalidation to refresh related data after mutations.
  • Devtools for live inspection of query states.

Power tips

  • Prefetch likely-next routes to hide latency (e.g., on hover).
  • Use useInfiniteQuery for endless scroll; surface hasNextPage/fetchNextPage.
  • Pass auth tokens via queryFnContext; centralize fetcher.
  • For SSR/Next.js, hydrate with dehydrate/Hydrate to avoid waterfalls.

Performance guardrails

  • Set per-query stale times and retry counts to balance freshness vs. load.
  • Log slow queries and cache hit rate; watch INP/LCP when triggering refetches.
  • Keep query keys stable and descriptive (e.g., ["post", postId]).

Bottom line: React Query removes state-management overhead for remote data and delivers faster, more resilient UIs with minimal code.