How to Build Instagram Stories in React | Machine Coding Interview Guide

In this video, we build an Instagram-like Story feature in React from scratch, exactly the way it is expected in frontend machine coding interviews. We cover: • Story upload and preview • Auto-expiry of stories using timers • Proper cleanup of timers and object URLs • React state vs refs – when and why to use each • Avoiding memory leaks (important interview topic) • How Instagram actually handles story expiry (conceptually) This is NOT just implementation: we focus on the “why” behind each decision, which interviewers look for in React machine coding rounds. Perfect for: Frontend Developer interviews React Machine Coding rounds Senior Frontend / SDE roles Understanding React lifecycle & cleanup