What is the difference between synchronous and asynchronous programming in Kotlin?

Synchronous code blocks execution; asynchronous allows concurrent execution without blocking threads.

Synchronous execution runs tasks sequentially, blocking the thread until completion. Asynchronous programming in Kotlin uses coroutines to suspend execution without blocking threads. This enables scalable concurrency, especially for IO operations. Unlike callback-based async, coroutines maintain sequential code structure while being non-blocking.