How do you manage global state in Next.js without external libraries?

Thank you for posing such a critical question. Managing global state is indeed a fundamental aspect of ensuring our applications are both scalable and maintainable. As a Full Stack Developer with extensive experience in building and scaling high-performing applications, especially with Next.js, I have had the opportunity to delve deep into state management strategies that optimize for performance without necessarily relying on external libraries. At the heart of managing global state in Next.js applications, I leverage React's Context API coupled with the use of the built-in useReducer hook for a more predictable state management pattern, similar to how Redux works but without the added complexity and overhead of external libraries. Let me break down how I approach this: Step 1: Creating a Context First, I create a context using React's createContext method. This is where I define the shape of the global state and the initial state...