Real-Time Data Scraping: WebSockets, SSE, and API Polling

Traditional web scraping fetches static snapshots of data. But what about live stock prices, sports scores, chat messages, or cryptocurrency trades? These require real-time data collection using WebSockets, Server-Sent Events (SSE), or API polling. In this guide, I'll show you how to capture streaming data with Python. Three Approaches to Real-Time Data Method Direction Use Case Complexity WebSockets Bidirectional Live trades, chat, gaming Medium SSE Server to client News feeds, notifications Low API Polling Client to server Any REST API Low WebSocket Scraping WebSockets maintain a persistent connection for real-time bidirectional data. Many trading platforms and live data feeds use them: import asyncio import websockets import json from datetime import datetime async def scrape_websocket ( url , duration_seconds = 60 ): """ Connect to a WebSocket and collect messages. """ messages = [] async with websockets . connect ( url ) as ws : # Some WebSockets require a subscription message sub