Things to Consider When Using Cache

Caching is one of the 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 used techniques when building fast online systems. When using a cache, here are the top 5 things to consider:

The first version of the cheatsheet was written by guest author Love Sharma.

Suitable Scenarios

• In-memory solution

• Read heavy system

• Data is not frequently updated

Caching Techniques

• Cache aside

• Write-through

• Read-through

• Write-around

• Write-back

Cache Eviction Algorithms

• Least Recently Used (LRU)

• Least Frequently Used (LFU)

• First-in First-out (FIFO)

• Random Replacement (RR)

Key Metrics

• Cache Hit Ratio

• Latency

• Throughput

• Invalidation Rate

• Memory Usage

• CPU usage

• Network usage

Other Issues

• Thunder herd on cold start

• Time-to-live (TTL)