People looking for guidance ask and people who are experienced answer

[me-imfhd]

My question/doubt is , if I want to learn MERN stack, then if directly jump into projects without knowing how node.js works or what is a backend server how it works and just getting my work done from the internet and chat GPT then how is that valid, I am learning React and Material UI by myself and I am overwhelmed how to write code by myself.
My doubt is to directly get involved in broke down mini projects or first learn the language and then start doing it.
Both answer to this question is welcomed.

[me-imfhd]

And how much refined a project should be?
If I am building YouTube clone by myself then what percent it should be similar to my YouTube.
25 50 75 or 100.