When it comes to speeding up API calls, many developers jump straight into custom caching layers—rediscovering problems that HTTP solved decades ago.

In this episode, we dig into why HTTP caching is still one of the most underused superpowers in web performance.

You’ll learn:

✅ How standard HTTP cache headers (Cache-Control, ETag, Vary) can do the heavy lifting

✅ Why revalidation beats blind refetching

✅ Common mistakes that lead teams to build fragile, homegrown caching hacks

✅ How proper HTTP caching strategies improve scalability, latency, and cost

Before you spin up another custom cache, make sure you’re using the protocol that was built for the job.