We'll explore how Redis is used for caching and why it’s such a popular choice. For testing and development, we'll use Spring Boot as the server framework.

How does caching work?

1. When a user sends a request, the server first checks if the required data is in the cache (Redis);

2. If the data is in the cache (cache hit), it is immediately returned to the user;

3. If the data is not in the cache (cache miss), the server retrieves it from the database;

4. The retrieved data is then stored in the cache for future use;

5. Finally, the data is returned to the user.

What’s next?

In this section, we'll build an application integrated with Redis to demonstrate how caching works. We'll create a simple REST API and evaluate its performance with caching enabled.

Caching not only improves response times for users but also reduces database load, making the application more scalable.