Avoiding prop drilling without overengineering

New React developers often overreach for state managers the moment props feel tedious. Most of the time, you do not need Redux, Zustand, or even Context. You need to lift state to the right component or compose differently. Reach for the heavy tools only when you feel real pain.

A quick decision tree. If two sibling components need the same state, lift it to their common parent. If the state is needed by many components spread across the tree, reach for Context. If Context is causing re-render issues, reach for a state library. Do not skip the first two steps.

One underrated trick. Instead of passing props through middle components, use children or slot props to let the parent pass content straight to where it is needed. A Layout that takes a sidebar prop lets the caller supply the sidebar without any middle component knowing about it. This is composition instead of prop drilling.