Should Junior Developers Still Learn JavaScript the Hard Way?

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Let’s define “the hard way” first.

Not:

  • Watching a 6-hour tutorial at 1.5× speed
  • Copy-pasting code until it works
  • Asking AI to “fix this” without reading the output

By the hard way, people usually mean:

  • Vanilla JavaScript
  • No frameworks at first
  • Understanding what actually happens under the hood

So… in 2026, with AI copilots and frameworks everywhere:

Is that still necessary — or just gatekeeping with extra steps?

The tempting shortcut

A junior dev today can:

  • Build a React app in an afternoon
  • Deploy to the cloud without touching a server
  • Generate code faster than they can read it

Honestly? That’s amazing.

But there’s a catch.

When something breaks — and it will — the question becomes: 

Do you understand JavaScript… or just the framework?

What “learning the hard way” actually gives you

Learning JavaScript fundamentals isn’t about suffering.
It’s about control.

If you understand:

  • Closures
  • Scope & hoisting
  • this (yes, unfortunately)
  • The event loop
  • Async behavior beyond “just use async/await”

You stop being surprised by bugs.

You don’t panic when:

  • State updates behave weirdly
  • Performance tanks for no obvious reason
  • Something works locally but fails in production
    You debug instead of guess.

Frameworks don’t replace fundamentals

Frameworks change.
JavaScript doesn’t (well… not that much).

The React you learn today won’t look the same in 3–4 years.
The JavaScript concepts underneath? Still there.

If you skip the fundamentals:

  • Every new framework feels like starting over
  • You rely heavily on Stack Overflow and AI
  • Debugging feels like superstition

If you learn them:

  • New tools feel familiar
  • You adapt faster
  • You write simpler, cleaner code
    The real problem with “the hard way”

The issue isn’t learning JavaScript fundamentals.

It’s how we teach them.

Endless for loops and contrived examples don’t help anyone.
Nobody gets excited by: 

let sum = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
  sum += arr[i];
}

What does help?

  • Small real-world projects
  • Breaking things on purpose
  • Seeing how raw JS powers actual apps

Hard doesn’t mean boring.
Hard means intentional.

So… should juniors still do it?

Yes — but not forever, and not alone.

A good path in 2026 looks like this:

  1. Learn core JavaScript concepts
  2. Build small things without frameworks
  3. Then earn the abstractions

Skipping fundamentals entirely is risky.
Living in “vanilla JS only” land forever is pointless.

Balance matters.

Final take

JavaScript isn’t the hard part.

Understanding it is.

And that understanding pays off every single time:

  • When frameworks change
  • When AI gets it wrong
  • When production is on fire and you’re the one fixing it

So yes — junior developers should still learn JavaScript the hard way.

Just not the stupid way.

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