A crash course on sockets? Yes please!

WebSockets. Most of us who manage large web applications have encountered them at some point. Some rely on them heavily for real-time updates. Most don’t actually understand how they work under the hood.

Now I don’t see this as a flaw. We software engineers are largely self-taught beyond the fundamentals. We often dive deeper into topics specifically when finding and fixing a bug demands it. Your brain has limited capacity, and more than half of it should be reserved for what truly matters—your relationships, your well-being, your life outside code. (And if you’re arguing that WebSockets are that critical to your existence, then … well … you do you.)

Recently, I came across a video that strikes the perfect balance of deeply educational and respectably concise. It’s from a YouTuber called The Coding Gopher.

Why this video?

Just watch it and you will see. Need more? Their explanation moves beyond surface-level implementation details to explore the fundamental concepts that make WebSockets tick. It builds your mental model of what’s actually happening behind the curtain. If you’ve been using WebSockets without fully grasping the underlying mechanics, or if you’ve been avoiding them because they seem complex, this video should help you out.

Now, go check out the video yourself!