Scenario: A request is received, and crosses other policies before reaching the HTTP Caching policy. It is a cache hit scenario. The HTTP Caching policy searches for the key in the object store and finds that the response to a request is already cached as a stored entry. Does the request proceed any further in the policy chain?

• A. Yes, it proceeds to the backend.
• B. Yes, but only after a validation step.
• C. It continues to the next policy as normal.
• D. No, the request does not proceed toward the backend.

Answer: (D)

Caching can dramatically speed up responses by returning what’s already stored. When the HTTP Caching policy finds a stored response for the request key (a cache hit), it serves that cached response immediately. There’s no need to contact the backend, and the policy returns the cached payload to the client, effectively halting further processing toward the backend. That’s why, in a cache hit scenario, the request does not proceed to the backend. If there were a miss, the flow would continue to reach the backend to generate and then store a new response.