Async Await Pitfalls

Async/Await Pitfalls

Sync-over-async

.Result, .Wait(), .GetAwaiter().GetResult() on an incomplete task: instant rejection in request paths. In classic ASP.NET, WPF, WinForms it deadlocks (continuation needs the captured context the blocking thread holds). In ASP.NET Core it does not deadlock but burns a thread-pool thread per call and collapses under load via pool starvation - the symptom is p99 latency spiking while CPU is idle.

// non-compiling: illustrative
// WRONG
var user = _client.GetUserAsync(id).Result;
// RIGHT: make the caller async all the way up to the controller/handler
var user = await _client.GetUserAsync(id);

There is no safe wrapper. Task.Run(...).Result avoids the deadlock, costs two threads, and hides the design error. Fix the call chain. Acceptable exceptions: Main before async Main existed, and IDisposable.Dispose bridging (prefer IAsyncDisposable).

ConfigureAwait

• Library code (no ASP.NET Core dependency, may be consumed from UI or legacy contexts): ConfigureAwait(false) on every await. One missing await re-introduces the deadlock risk for UI callers.
• ASP.NET Core application code: there is no SynchronizationContext; ConfigureAwait(false) is noise. Do not demand it in app-level reviews.

async void

Only for event handlers. Anywhere else, exceptions escape to the SynchronizationContext or crash the process, the caller cannot await or observe completion, and tests pass while work is still running.

// non-compiling: illustrative
// WRONG
public async void SaveAndNotify() { await _repo.SaveAsync(); }
// RIGHT
public async Task SaveAndNotifyAsync() { await _repo.SaveAsync(); }

Also flag async lambdas passed to Action parameters (e.g. List.ForEach, Parallel.For) - they compile to async void.

Fire-and-forget

An unawaited task swallows its exceptions until (maybe) TaskScheduler.UnobservedTaskException. If work must outlive the request, do not spawn _ = Task.Run(...) in a handler - the DbContext and other scoped services it captured are disposed when the request ends. Enqueue to a hosted BackgroundService reading a Channel<T>, and resolve dependencies from a fresh IServiceScope inside the worker.

ValueTask discipline

ValueTask is for hot paths that usually complete synchronously (cache hits). Rules: await it exactly once; never .Result it; never await it twice or store it and await later concurrently - backing IValueTaskSource objects are recycled and double-consumption reads someone else's state. If the consumer needs Task semantics (WhenAll, multiple awaits), call .AsTask() once or just return Task. Default to Task; ValueTask in a public API is a measured decision, not a habit.

CancellationToken threading

• Every async public method on a service/repository takes CancellationToken cancellationToken = default as the last parameter, and passes it to every awaited call. A token accepted but not forwarded is a bug: cancellation silently stops at that frame.
• ASP.NET Core binds HttpContext.RequestAborted to a CancellationToken action parameter automatically - accept it in controllers and flow it down. Long queries and outbound HTTP calls that ignore it keep consuming the database after the client disconnected.
• Do not pass the request token into work that must complete (payment commit, outbox write). Split: cancellable read phase, non-cancellable commit phase, and say so with CancellationToken.None explicitly, not by omission.
• Check ThrowIfCancellationRequested() inside CPU-bound loops; awaits are the only implicit checkpoints.

Miscellaneous review flags

• Task.WhenAll results: on multi-failure only the first exception propagates via await; if all failures matter, inspect whenAllTask.Exception.InnerExceptions or iterate tasks.
• Concurrent EF Core usage: DbContext is not thread-safe; WhenAll over two queries on one context throws InvalidOperationException intermittently. Sequential awaits or separate scopes.
• async method that awaits nothing on any path: remove the keyword, return the task directly - unless a using/try block wraps the return, where eliding await disposes before the task finishes.
• Timeouts: prefer cts = CancellationTokenSource.CreateLinkedTokenSource(ct); cts.CancelAfter(timeout); over Task.Delay races; on .NET 8+, task.WaitAsync(timeout, ct).