CI/CD · Performance
Pipeline Caching That Actually Saves Minutes
By Min-jun Park · 2025-09-03
Cache misses frustrate students more than failing tests. We teach explicit cache keys tied to lockfiles and base images, not hope-and-restore defaults.
A useful pattern: layer caches per workspace in monorepos, invalidate on dependency graph changes only. Teams in our CI/CD Pipeline Engineering course shaved twelve minutes off average builds with this approach.
Watch for poisoned caches after security patches. Schedule a monthly cache bust aligned with base image updates.
Document cache behavior in your README so the next engineer knows why a key exists. Future you will appreciate it during incident review.