How to write code that breaks gracefully instead of crashing spectacularly. Here's what happens when your JavaScript code hits an error and you haven't handled it: const user = undefined ; console . log ( user . name ); // TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'name') // 💥 Script stops. Everything below this line NEVER runs. Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The entire program crashes. Any code after the error? Gone. UI update below it? Never happens. API call scheduled later in the file? Cancelled. One unhandled error takes down everything. That's not how production software should work. Users submit empty forms, APIs go down, JSON comes back malformed, variables end up undefined when you expected an object. Errors will happen. The question is: does your code crash, or does it handle the situation gracefully? This is what try , catch , and finally are for. I learned this lesson the hard way in the ChaiCode Web Dev Cohort 2026 — let me save you the pain.…