Python telegram bot with async not handling multiple groups concurrently

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1

I’m using the python-telegram-bot library with asynchronous functions, but I’m facing a challenge. My bot is able to work with a single group, but when I try to run it in two different groups at the same time, it handles the requests one after the other instead of processing them concurrently. It finishes the operation in the first group before it starts responding to commands in the second group.

Here is a snippet of my code:

async def start_blackjack(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE) -> None:
    if not await check_player(update, context):
        return
    chat_id = update.message.chat_id
    game = await sync_to_async(lambda: Game.objects.filter(chat_id=chat_id).order_by('-id').first())()

    if not game or game.ended:
        game, created = await sync_to_async(Game.objects.get_or_create)(chat_id=chat_id, ended=False)
        game.betting = True
        game.started = False
        await sync_to_async(game.save)()

        await asyncio.sleep(2)  # Non-blocking sleep
        await context.bot.send_message(chat_id=chat_id, text="🃏 Set the bet amount for the blackjack game to start.")

        await create_poll(update, context)  # Assume this is an async function
        await asyncio.sleep(2)  # Non-blocking sleep
        await context.bot.send_message(chat_id=chat_id, text="🃏 Betting process has started!")
        return

    if game.betting:
        await update.message.reply_text("A Blackjack game is in betting progress. Wait for the betting process to end and use /join to join the game.")
    elif game.started:
        await update.message.reply_text("A game has already started. Use the /next command to be prompted when the next game starts.")
    elif game.join_time:
        await update.message.reply_text("A game is in join time. Use the /join command to join the game.")
    else:
        await update.message.reply_text("An error occurred, please try again.")

Initially, I wrote the code without async functions. I thought that converting everything to async would solve the problem, but it hasn’t.

This is my Django model for the game:

class Game(models.Model):
    chat_id = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    betting = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    started = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    join_time = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    ended = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    hands_reset = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    bet_amount = models.IntegerField(default=5)
    dealer_hand = models.JSONField(default=list)
    turn_order = models.JSONField(default=list)
    current_round = models.IntegerField(default=1)
    total_rounds = models.IntegerField(default=5)
    pot = models.IntegerField(default=0)
    join_start_time = models.DateTimeField(null=True, blank=True)

Why is the bot not processing multiple groups simultaneously even with async functions?

2

This probably comes from how python-telegram-bot sets up the application. Even with async handlers, you might still get sequential processing if you’re not using the right async builder. Make sure you’re doing ApplicationBuilder().token(TOKEN).build() and running with application.run_polling() or application.run_webhook(). I had the same issue until I figured out my app wasn’t actually set up for concurrent processing. Also double-check your Django database settings - if you’re using async views with the default sync database, that’ll bottleneck everything and serialize operations across chat groups.

3

your database operations are probably blocking the event loop despite using sync_to_async. wrap your whole database transaction in one sync_to_async call rather than splitting it up - cuts down on context switching overhead. also double-check that django’s database connection pooling is set up right for async work.