Free course · 10 lessons · Intermediate
Caching and Performance Engineering
Caching layers, cache patterns and invalidation, HTTP caching and CDNs, Redis, measuring performance, database tuning, scaling patterns, resilience under load and Core Web Vitals.
1. Caching Fundamentals
Where to cache, how to keep caches correct, and how HTTP caching, CDNs and Redis fit together.
- The Caching Layers of a Web System — Browser, CDN, reverse proxy, application and database caches — and what belongs where.
- Cache-Aside, Read-Through and Write Patterns — The standard patterns for reading and writing cached data.
- Cache Invalidation and Stampede Protection — Keep caches correct and protect the database when hot keys expire.
- HTTP Caching and CDNs — Cache-Control, ETags and edge caching for pages and APIs.
- Redis in Practice — Data structures, eviction, persistence and pitfalls of running Redis as a cache.
2. Performance and Scalability
Measure, find bottlenecks and scale systems that stay fast under load.
- Measuring Performance: Percentiles, Profiling and Load Tests — Know what 'fast' means and find where time goes.
- Database Performance — Indexes, query plans, N+1 queries and connection pooling.
- Scaling Patterns — Stateless services, read replicas, sharding, queues and CDNs.
- Resilience Under Load — Timeouts, backpressure, load shedding and graceful degradation.
- Frontend Performance and Core Web Vitals — Make pages load fast and stay responsive for real users.