Async vs Await, isn’t This Just Synchronous?

📌Intro

If awaitpauses execution… doesn’t that make it synchronous again? This is the #1 async misconception.

🧠Context

• awaitlooks synchronous but isn’t.
• It pauses only the current async function, without blocking the event loop.

Examples:

async function main() { console.log("Before"); await new Promise(res => setTimeout(res, 1000)); console.log("After"); } main(); console.log("Outside"); // Output: // Before // Outside // After 

Arrow version:

const main = async () => { console.log("Start"); await new Promise(res => setTimeout(res, 1000)); console.log("Done"); }; main(); 

💡Real-Life Example:

Your UI doesn’t freeze while waiting for a network call.
E.g., while checking login, users can still scroll, click, or type.

JavaScript is single-threaded, but async/await lets you write non-blocking code that looks clean.