A system and method can support socket programming in a server environment, such as a distributed data grid. The server environment can include a selection service that operates to register a plurality of sockets, wherein each socket is associated with a handler in a plurality of handlers. Furthermore, the selection service can listen for one or more incoming connection requests on the plurality of sockets, and invoke a pluggable callback provided by a handler associated with a registered socket in the plurality of sockets, when registered socket receives an incoming connection request.