When does the event-driven model break down in Node.js?
When a callback does heavy synchronous work, it blocks the event loop and all other connections. This is why you must keep the main thread non-blocking and offload CPU-heavy work to worker threads or other processes.
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More FAQs in Node.js Event-Driven Architecture Explained
A model where the system waits for events like a request arriving or a file read completing, and responds with callbacks. The event loop processes these events one at a time on a single thread, which is efficient for many concurrent I/O connections.
Traditional servers like Java or PHP spawn a new thread per request, using more memory. Node.js uses a single thread with the event loop, processing callbacks as async operations complete, which uses less memory for many concurrent connections.
A built-in class that lets you create and listen for custom events. Many Node.js modules, like streams and HTTP servers, are built on events, so understanding EventEmitter is key to understanding Node.js internals.
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