In layman terms, SSE is a Server Sent Event where the UI first initiates the call and requests for data, then the Server sends back the data to the caller (UI) when the data is available.
When an HTTP connection is made from the UI, the server holds the connection and responds back with the data when and ever it gets an event/data from the downstream APIs/sources.

#java

Server Sent Events — Architecture and Implementation
3.05 GEEK