Timers: setTimeout/setInterval and Drift

Timers schedule work but can silently increase event-loop latency; use them intentionally and offload heavy callbacks.

On this page

Timers and the Event Loop

Timers schedule delayed execution but interact directly with the event loop. Misuse can increase latency under load.

setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('Delayed');
}, 1000);

setImmediate executes after I/O callbacks. It is useful for deferring heavy computations.

Long-running timer callbacks block the event loop. Heavy tasks should be offloaded to worker threads or external services.