Events vs Polling

Developers should learn events to build responsive, non-blocking applications, particularly in user interfaces, real-time systems, and distributed architectures meets developers should use polling when building applications that need to monitor state changes, fetch updates from apis without websocket support, or in embedded systems where hardware constraints limit push-based methods. Here's our take.

Events

Nice Pick

Developers should learn events to build responsive, non-blocking applications, particularly in user interfaces, real-time systems, and distributed architectures

Pros

• They are essential for handling user inputs (e
• Related to: asynchronous-programming, observer-pattern

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Polling

Developers should use polling when building applications that need to monitor state changes, fetch updates from APIs without WebSocket support, or in embedded systems where hardware constraints limit push-based methods

Pros

• It is particularly useful for simple monitoring tasks, such as checking for new messages in a chat app, tracking file upload progress, or querying sensor data in IoT devices, where low-frequency updates are acceptable and implementation simplicity is prioritized over efficiency
• Related to: long-polling, webhooks

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Events if: You want they are essential for handling user inputs (e and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Polling if: You prioritize it is particularly useful for simple monitoring tasks, such as checking for new messages in a chat app, tracking file upload progress, or querying sensor data in iot devices, where low-frequency updates are acceptable and implementation simplicity is prioritized over efficiency over what Events offers.

The Bottom Line

Events wins

Developers should learn events to build responsive, non-blocking applications, particularly in user interfaces, real-time systems, and distributed architectures