In this tutorial, we'll build a complete full-stack application with a Spring Boot REST API backend and a React frontend — the exact stack that companies like Infosys, TCS, and Accenture are hiring for right now.
What We'll Build
A simple Task Manager application with:
- CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
- REST API with Spring Boot
- React frontend with modern hooks
- MySQL database
- Clean project structure
Backend Setup
Start by generating a Spring Boot project at start.spring.io with these dependencies:
- Spring Web
- Spring Data JPA
- MySQL Driver
- Lombok
- Validation
Create your entity, repository, service, and controller layers following clean architecture principles.
Frontend Setup
Create a React app with Vite (faster than create-react-app):
npm create vite@latest task-manager-ui -- --template react
We'll use Axios for API calls and React Router for navigation. The component structure follows a clean pattern: pages, components, services, and hooks.
Connecting Frontend to Backend
The key is proper CORS configuration on the Spring Boot side and Axios service setup on the React side. We'll create a centralized API service that handles all HTTP requests with proper error handling.
Want to Learn More?
This tutorial covers the basics. Our Full Stack Java Developer Program goes much deeper — you'll build 10+ projects including a complete e-commerce platform with microservices architecture, authentication, payment integration, and cloud deployment.