In modern web applications, real-time communication between clients and servers is crucial for delivering dynamic, responsive user experiences. Users expect to see new chat messages, notifications, or live data instantly without needing to refresh the page. To achieve this, developers can choose from several techniques: Polling, Long-Polling, WebSockets, and Webhooks. Each approach has its own mechanism, advantages, and trade-offs.

Polling

What it is: Polling is the simplest form of checking for updates