What is WebSockets?

A WebSocket connection starts with an HTTP handshake that upgrades to the WebSocket protocol. Once established, the connection stays open, allowing both the client and server to send messages at any time. This is ideal for real-time features like chat, live notifications, collaborative editing, live dashboards, and multiplayer games.

Real-time features are increasingly expected in modern apps — users want instant notifications, live updates, and collaborative functionality. However, WebSockets add architectural complexity: connection management, reconnection logic, scaling across multiple servers, and state synchronization. AI tools often generate basic WebSocket code that works for one user but breaks under real-world conditions.

No reconnection logic when connections drop, memory leaks from unclosed connections, inability to scale horizontally (sticky sessions or pub/sub needed), no authentication on WebSocket connections, no heartbeat mechanism to detect dead connections, and not handling backpressure from slow clients.

Implement automatic reconnection with exponential backoff. Authenticate WebSocket connections during the handshake. Use a pub/sub system (Redis) for horizontal scaling. Implement heartbeat/ping-pong to detect stale connections. Consider using established solutions like Socket.IO, Pusher, or Ably instead of raw WebSockets. Fall back to polling for environments that block WebSockets.