Glossary term
What is Cache stampede (thundering herd)?
Cache stampede stands for thundering herd.
In System Design
Many requests rebuild the same expired key at once. Example: A popular key expires → 5,000 DB queries in 1 second.
Learn it properly · System DesignLesson 16: Caching Part 2: Strategies, Eviction and InvalidationAdding a cache is easy; keeping it correct is hard. The six read/write strategies, why you delete rather than update on write, eviction policies you can try by hand, invalidation per data type, and the five ways caches cause outages.In Scenario Debugging
A popular cache entry expires, and thousands of requests miss at once and hit the database together. Stop it by merging requests and adding random time to TTLs.
Learn it properly · Scenario DebuggingLesson 2: “The UI Is Fast but the API Takes Too Long”: How to Solve ItFollow the request: DNS and TLS, cold starts, N+1 queries, missing indexes, slow calls to other services, big payloads and missing caches. Then the UX fixes while the backend is repaired.In Full-Stack Questions
Many requests miss the cache at the same moment and all hit the database together.
Learn it properly · Full-Stack QuestionsLesson 18: Redis and Caching Interview QuestionsCache-aside and the other patterns, TTL and invalidation, stampedes, data types, persistence, eviction, rate limiting, locks and client settings that matter.