When working with AWS resources that require time to reach a desired state, such as EC2 instances starting up, S3 buckets being created, or
DynamoDB tables becoming available, developers often implement custom polling loops to check the resource status repeatedly. However, this approach is
inefficient and error-prone. Custom polling requires manual handling of timing intervals, retry logic, error conditions, and timeout scenarios. It
also tends to be verbose and duplicates logic that AWS already provides in a more robust form. AWS SDK provides waiters, which are purpose-built
abstractions specifically designed to poll AWS resources until they reach a desired state. Waiters handle the complexities of polling automatically,
including appropriate delays, exponential backoff, maximum wait times, and proper error handling.
What is the potential impact?
Custom polling implementations can lead to inefficient resource usage due to inappropriate polling intervals, increased complexity and maintenance
overhead, potential race conditions and timing issues, and unreliable error handling that may cause application failures or infinite loops.
