Understanding Asynchronous, Non-Blocking, Concurrent, and Parallel Calls

FullStackTips
6 min readApr 9, 2023
Asynchronous calls

As a software developer, you may have come across terms like asynchronous call, non-blocking call, concurrent call, and parallel call. These concepts are essential in modern software development, especially when dealing with large-scale distributed systems. In this blog, we will discuss these concepts in detail, including their differences and how they are used in Java.

The Need for Asynchronous and Non-blocking Calls

In a typical software system, tasks are executed in a synchronous manner, where each task has to complete before the next one can start. This approach can lead to performance issues, especially in distributed systems, where tasks may depend on external systems, such as databases or APIs. In such scenarios, the system may become unresponsive or slow, leading to a poor user experience.

To address these issues, asynchronous and non-blocking calls are used. These concepts allow a program to execute multiple tasks concurrently without waiting for each task to complete. Instead, the program continues to execute other tasks while the first task is running in the background.

Asynchronous Calls

Asynchronous call is a programming technique that allows a program to execute…

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