We've been tapping into useEffect and useState for handling external API calls, making the process of fetching and posting data pretty straightforward. We hit a bit of a bump when our components weren't updating live, but with a little refactoring and the right useEffect usage, we got it sorted out—no more needing to hit refresh!
On the UI front, we took things up a notch, introducing some slick styling and animations. We even added a spinning loader to keep the interface lively while awaiting data from the API.