An early return means returning a piece of UI before reaching the component's main return statement when a particular condition is met. Early returns are especially useful when a component has several important states such as loading, error, missing data, and success. ### Example ```jsx function UserProfile({ user, loading, error }) { if (loading) { return

Loading profile...

; } if (error) { return

Unable to load profile.

; } if (!user) { return

User not found.

; } return (

{user.name}

{user.bio}

); } ``` The component is easy to read from top to bottom: ```text Loading? → show loading UI Error? → show error UI No user? → show empty state Otherwise → show profile ``` ### Why Early Returns Are Useful Without early returns, the same logic may become deeply nested: ```jsx return (

{loading ? ( ) : error ? ( ) : user ? ( ) : ( )}

); ``` For a small condition this may be acceptable, but as more states are added, readability decreases. ### Guarding Protected UI Early returns are also useful for permissions: ```jsx function AdminPage({ user }) { if (!user) { return ; } if (user.role !== "admin") { return ; } return ; } ``` ### Returning null If the component should display nothing: ```jsx function DebugPanel({ enabled }) { if (!enabled) { return null; } return

Debug information

; } ``` ### Interview-Ready Answer An early return lets a [React](/courses/reactjs) component handle a condition before reaching its main [JSX](/courses/reactjs) output. It is especially useful for loading, error, empty, authentication, and permission states. Early returns often make components easier to understand than deeply nested ternary expressions.