React Hooks Stale Closure Problem: useState or useEffect capturing outdated state

In my React component, I schedule state updates asynchronously (e.g. inside setTimeout or event handlers), but the updates refer to outdated state—leading to stale values and unexpected behavior. For example: js Copy code // count is always one less than expected setTimeout(() => { alert(count is ${count}); }, 1000);

This is the classic stale closure issue: the closure captures the value of count at render time, so asynchronous callbacks reference old state, regardless of later updates. Fix ✅: Use the functional version of setState to ensure you always work with the latest value: js Copy code setCount(prev => prev + 1); Or use a ref to store and access the current value across renders.