A system for responding to requests using stream processing comprises a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and a processor coupled to the computer readable storage medium. Responsive to a client request, a processing thread is assigned for handling the client request. A return connection is established within the processing thread. A server request derived from the client request to a stream server configured to interact with a plurality of stream processing nodes is sent, and the server request comprises a thread identifier specifying the processing thread. The processing thread for handling the client request is maintained in an idle state pending a write response message from the stream server. Responsive to receiving the write response message comprising a stream processing result and the thread identifier from the stream server, the processing thread is returned to an active state.