React State Management with Context and useReducer

Use the Context API when several components across your tree need access to the same value, such as the authenticated user or theme, and passing it through every intermediate component would cause prop drilling. For local state that is only needed by a parent and a couple of children, lifting state and passing props is usually still the simplest option.

Context plus useReducer is enough for many small or medium‑sized apps, especially for global concerns like authentication. Redux Toolkit becomes more attractive when you have many slices of state, complex async flows, or want powerful tooling like time‑travel debugging and predictable patterns for scaling a large codebase.

Storing tokens in localStorage is simple and works for many demos, but it can expose your app to extra risk if an attacker can run JavaScript on your page via XSS. For production systems, discuss storage options with your security team and consider HTTP‑only cookies or other patterns recommended by your backend and security stack.