What is the difference between synchronous and asynchronous functions?

• Synchronous functions block the execution until they finish.
• Asynchronous functions allow other code to run while waiting for operations (like

I/O) to complete.

// Synchronous (blocks event loop)

const data = fs.readFileSync('file.txt');

// Asynchronous (non-blocking)

fs.readFile('file.txt', (err, data) => {

if (err) throw err;

console.log(data);

});