Refresh-Ahead Caching Pattern

The cache automatically predicts hot keys nearing TTL expiration and asynchronously refreshes their values from the database before clients experience a cache miss.

STAFF ENGINEER TAKEAWAY: Eliminates read latency spikes for frequently accessed hot keys by refreshing before expiration.

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More Topics in 4. Performance

⚡Distributed Caching Strategies

High-speed in-memory key-value data stores positioned in front of slower relational databases to reduce read latency from 20ms to <1ms.

🌍Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

A geographically distributed network of proxy edge servers that caches static assets (images, videos, JS/CSS) and terminates TLS close to end users.

📦Cache-Aside (Lazy Loading) Pattern

The application code explicitly queries the cache first. On a cache miss, it reads from the database and populates the cache for subsequent requests.

✍️Write-Through Caching Pattern

Data is written simultaneously to the cache and the primary database in a single synchronized transaction before acknowledging the client.