When C# 5.0 introduced async/await in 2012, it fundamentally changed how developers write asynchronous code. Before this, you had callbacks, events, and the Begin/End pattern.

Each approach led to increasingly tangled code that was hard to read, debug, and maintain. async/await made asynchronous code look almost identical to synchronous code, while the compiler did the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

This chapter takes you inside the machine. You will see exactly what the compiler generates, understand how context flows through your async code, and learn the patterns that separate novice async programmers from experts.

Why C# Pioneered async/await