Does the Microtask Queue have more priority than the Macrotask Queue?

Question

If the Microtask Queue has more priority than the Macrotask Queue, why the order of console logs is

• scriptStart
• scriptEnd
• setTimeout
• Response

instead of

• scriptStart
• scriptEnd
• Response
• setTimeout

given that for(let i=0;i<100000000;i++){ const start = Date.now(); } for(let i=0;i<100000000;i++){ const start = Date.now(); } takes enough time to keep the main thread busy, until the response from fetch arrives?

Full Code

 console.log("scriptStart") setTimeout(() => { console.log("setTimeout"); }, 0); fetch("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1").then(() => { console.log('Response'); }); for (let i = 0; i < 100000000; i++) { const start = Date.now(); } console.log("scriptEnd")

Answer 1

As you can see in Network tab of debugger, the request to server starts only when thread was released (for loop ended). So, while fetch is receiving data from server, setTimeout has time to be done.

Answer 2

Because the interpreter is singlethreaded. It looks like you are mistaking tasks for threads. They are not. They are just a linked list of callbacks.

The interpreter works like this:

    START
      │
      ▼
    execute
    javascript
      │
      ▼
    Event loop
    ┌──────────┐
    │          │
    │          │
    │          ▼
    │        check if there's any  ─────────▶ handle event
    │        event completion                       │
    │          │                                    │
    │          ▼                                    │
    │        check if we need to execute  ◀─────────┘
    │        any javascript in ───────────────▶ execute
    │        the microtask list                javascript
    │          │                                    │
    │          ▼                                    │
    │        check if we need to execute  ◀─────────┘
    │        any javascript in ───────────────▶ execute
    │        the macrotask list                javascript
    │          │                                    │
    │          │                                    │
    └────◀─────┴─────────────────◀──────────────────┘

It's all loops. Nothing runs in parallel. So as long as you are executing javascript you are not entering the event loop.

Note: If you are using worker_threads or webworkers then that's a different story because they really spawn threads.