Understanding Async/Await in Node.js

Async/await is modern JavaScript syntax (introduced in ES2017+) that simplifies asynchronous programming, making the code look and behave more like synchronous code. It is built on top of Promises, providing a cleaner alternative to callback functions and Promise chaining, which helps avoid "callback hell" or complex .then() chains. Key Concepts - async Keyword: Declares an asynchronous function. An async function always returns a Promise, even if you return a non-Promise value (it gets automatically wrapped in a resolved Promise). await Keyword: Can only be used inside an async function. It pauses the execution of the async function until the Promise settles (either resolves or rejects), and then returns the resolved value. Non-blocking: While await pauses the function's execution, it does not block the entire Node.js event loop or main thread, allowing other operations to continue running in the background.