What is the Virtual DOM in React, and how does React Native adapt this concept without a DOM?

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The Virtual DOM in React-on-the-web is an in-memory representation of the DOM that React diffs against to compute minimal updates to the real DOM. React Native borrows the concept but not the implementation — there is no DOM on mobile. How it carries over to React Native: React maintains an in-memory component tree (the React tree) and computes a diff on each render. Instead of producing DOM mutations, RN emits native view operations — create view, set prop, remove view. Those operations cross over to native via the shadow tree (managed by Fabric in the New Architecture). The shadow tree (where layout happens): A C++ mirror of the React tree, used by Yoga to compute Flexbox layout off the main thread. In Fabric, the shadow tree is immutable — every change produces a new tree, enabling concurrent rendering. Why this matters: You can reason about React Native UI declaratively just like web React. The reconciliation algorithm (keys, Fiber, batched updates) works the same way. Performance heuristics from web React (stable keys, memoization, avoiding inline objects) carry over directly. Be precise: 'React Native has no DOM. There is no Virtual DOM in the literal sense — there's a **virtual representation of the component tree** that React diffs against the previous render and converts to native view operations.' The concept (cheap in-memory diff before expensive real-world mutation) carries over; the implementation is different. In Fabric, the shadow tree is built in C++.