Should I use useState or Context in React?

Because Context causes all consumers to re-render when the value changes. For high-frequency updates, this causes too many re-renders. useState only re-renders the component that owns it and its children, so it is often the better choice for local state.

Prop drilling is passing props through many levels to reach a deeply nested component. Context fixes it by providing the value directly to any component in the tree, without threading it through every intermediate level.

When one Context holds many values that change at different rates. Split it into multiple Contexts so consumers of one value do not re-render when an unrelated value changes. This avoids unnecessary re-renders.