A background job for a slow AI task (a long document summary, a batch process) needs the client to find out when it's done. Polling a status endpoint every few seconds works, but wastes requests and adds latency to when the client actually learns of completion.
The webhook alternative
Instead of the client asking repeatedly, the client provides a callback URL upfront, and your system calls that URL once the job finishes. This is a common pattern in APIs designed for this exact scenario.
- Best for server-to-server integrations, where the client can run a small endpoint to receive the callback.
- Needs retry logic on your side, since the client's endpoint might be briefly unavailable when you try to notify it.
- For a browser-based client that can't receive webhooks directly, a lightweight polling interval (every few seconds, not sub-second) or a WebSocket connection is the more practical choice.
See background jobs for slow AI tasks.
GenAI engineer and AI product builder with 2+ years shipping production-grade AI systems: RAG pipelines, fine-tuned LLMs, hybrid retrieval and multi-modal apps across vision, speech and OCR, architected end to end from ingestion to deployment. Leads engineering for SCULT INDIA's 14-member team, founded the 500+ member TechVerse Enclave community and has mentored 200+ students. Three hackathon first prizes: Changethon 2025 (IIT Roorkee), Product Genesis at Vividhotsava 2025 (CSJMU Kanpur) and BYTEBATTLE (MeetKats).
Open to GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks at colleges. Email pranjulrathour41@gmail.com.
