Redis Caching Patterns That Actually Work

Caching sounds simple until you deal with stale data, thundering herds, and cache invalidation.

Cache-Aside (Lazy Loading)

Check cache first. Miss? Fetch from DB, store in cache, return. Simple and effective for read-heavy workloads.

Write-Through

Write to cache and DB simultaneously. Ensures cache is always fresh but adds write latency.

TTL Strategies

• Short TTL (30s-5m) for frequently changing data
• Long TTL (1h-24h) for static content
• No TTL for session data (explicit invalidation)

Tips

• Always set a TTL — unbounded caches are memory leaks
• Use cache prefixes for easy namespace management
• Monitor hit rates — below 80% means your strategy needs work