Third Time’s the Cache, No More

What this post added

This post details the removal of a long-standing caching quirk where requests with query strings required three misses before being cached. Through A/B testing, Cloudflare validated that caching on the first request for URLs with query strings resulted in a minor, acceptable increase in disk writes (2.5%) while improving cache hit rates by approximately 3% for Enterprise customers and reducing origin bytes served by 5%. This data-driven decision was made possible by re-evaluating older assumptions about query string requests being predominantly 'one-hit-wonders' and recognizing that newer mechanisms like transient cache were more effective at managing unpopular assets.