The Single Source of Truth concept and its implementations in React

In my role as a Teaching Assistant, I often assist different groups of students with recurring problems. This allows me to consider these problems from various perspectives and understand the implications of different approaches and implementations, all without writing a single line of code.

Last week provided an example of this. The Angular batch I was assigned to was working on a week-long project to create a LinkedIn clone. I had previously assisted with this project several times using React, but this was my first experience with Angular.

One of the most common problems students present to me is something like, “When I update the profile picture, it gets updated on the profile page but not on the navbar.”

This issue often results from having separate pieces of data and HTTP calls for something that should be retrieved only once.

This, in short, is the single source of truth (SSOT) concept. If your data comes from different sources, you can’t be sure it’s updated.

What is the single source of truth (SSOT) concept?

The SSOT concept, in software development, states that pieces of data should be stored in only one location within a system, ensuring there is one…