Real Time Updates easy
You are building a Dashboard that updates once every hour. Which 'Real-Time' technology is best?
- A WebSockets.
- B Long Polling.
- C None. Just use standard Polling or a manual refresh button.
- D Server-Sent Events.
Answer: C. None. Just use standard Polling or a manual refresh button.
Real-time tech is expensive (stateful connections). For very slow updates (Hourly), keeping a connection open is wasteful. Simple polling or user-initiated refresh is the correct engineering choice.
One system design question a day, with spaced repetition so the ones you miss come back.
Get the appRelated questions
- When a mobile app is closed/backgrounded, it cannot keep a WebSocket open. How does it receive real-time alerts (like 'New Message')?
- For a human user, what is generally considered the maximum acceptable latency for an interaction to feel 'Real-Time' (e.g., typing in a Google Doc)?
- If you want to update a news feed on a website every time a new article is published, what is the simplest (but least efficient) 'Real-Time' technique?
- In a persistent real-time connection, what is the purpose of a 'Heartbeat' or 'Ping/Pong' message?
- Why is Short Polling considered 'Chatty'?
- Server-Sent Events (SSE) are ideal for which type of real-time application?