What is the Virtual DOM, and why is it important?

The Virtual DOM is React’s lightweight copy of the actual DOM.

Instead of updating the real DOM directly, React updates this virtual representation first, compares it to the previous version, and only changes what’s necessary.

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⚙️ Example

const element = <h1>Hello</h1>;
ReactDOM.render(element, document.getElementById('root'));

When you update the element:

const element = <h1>Hello, World!</h1>;

React compares the two and updates only the changed text node.

✅ This makes React fast and efficient.