Turbocharge Your Web App: How Redis Caching Solved My Slow Load Times

Just a week ago, I graduated from the ALX Software Engineering program, a rigorous journey that pushed my limits and expanded my technical skills. One of the highlights of my time at ALX was my capstone project, where I encountered and solved a challenging backend problem. Now, an exciting new opportunity has presented itself – the HNG Internship. While ALX provided a solid foundation, the HNG Internship promises to offer practical applications of my learning, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to dive in.

The Challenge

During my capstone project at ALX, I faced a significant issue: slow loading times for my web application [QuickTailor]. Users were experiencing delays of 3 to 5 seconds when loading pages. After investigating, I discovered the problem was due to the images and resources being fetched from an AWS S3 bucket. Each request required generating a signed image url which contributed to the delay.

The Solution

Here’s how I tackled the problem step-by-step:

1. Identify the Problem: I started by analyzing the load times and pinpointing that the primary delay was caused by fetching images from the S3 bucket. Each request for an image resulted in a 3 to 5-second delay due to the time it took to generate the signed URL and retrieve the image.

2. Implement Redis Caching: I implemented a simple Redis caching solution. The idea was to cache the image URLs so that subsequent requests for the same image would be served from Redis, significantly reducing the load time.

3. Caching Logic: When an image resource is requested for the first time, it is fetched from the S3 bucket, and the URL is cached in Redis with a TTL (Time to Live) of 1 hour. Any subsequent requests for the same image within that hour are served from Redis, bypassing the need to generate a new signed URL from S3.

4. Performance Testing: After implementing the caching mechanism, I conducted thorough testing to measure the improvements. The results were impressive – the loading time for cached images dropped from 3ms to 6ms, representing a 90% improvement in performance.

What Next After ALX

The journey with ALX taught me resilience and the importance of a hands-on approach to learning. Completing my capstone project successfully gave me a sense of achievement. With the HNG Internship, I aim to build on this by tackling real-world problems and gaining more experience in both backend development and DevOps. Choosing to undergo two tracks at once – backend and DevOps – might seem ambitious, but I’ve always seen the similarities between both and I'm eager to explore the learning and opportunities they offer together.

I’m excited to embrace the spirit of “doing hard things” once again, a mantra that carried me through ALX. The HNG Internship offers a platform to apply my skills, learn from experienced professionals, and grow in ways I haven’t yet imagined. This is more than just an internship; it’s a chance to push my boundaries and see where my passion for technology can take me.

For those interested in the HNG Internship, you can learn more about the program at HNG Internship and discover opportunities to hire talented interns at HNG Hire.

I look forward to the challenges ahead and can’t wait to share more of my journey