Using async/await syntax makes data fetching code more readable and easier to debug compared to promise chains, especially when handling multiple sequential API calls. As the creator of CoreUI, a widely used open-source UI library, I’ve implemented async/await patterns in React components across numerous projects over 25 years of development. From my expertise, the most effective approach is creating async functions within useEffect using immediately invoked function expressions (IIFE). This provides clean, synchronous-looking code while maintaining proper React lifecycle management.