A team serves image files from S3 through CloudFront. During a performance review, they notice that CloudFront cache hit ratio is low and the S3 origin receives many repeated requests for the same images. Request URLs include a volatile query parameter called 'sessionId' that changes for each user, but the image content is identical regardless of 'sessionId'. What configuration change will most effectively increase cache hit ratio?

Enable origin request policy to forward all query strings to S3 so responses are always correct for every sessionId.

Forwarding all query strings increases cache key variety and reduces hit ratio, even when content is identical.

Set the CloudFront minimum TTL to 0 seconds so cached objects expire quickly and fetch fresh content more often.

Short TTL values reduce cache residency time and generally lower hit ratio, worsening origin load.

Disable caching by using CloudFront managed caching disabled so that every request validates with the origin.

Disabling caching forces origin access on every request, directly contradicting the goal of higher hit ratio.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Update the CloudFront cache policy so that 'sessionId' is not included in the cache key (and only stable query parameters are used). — CloudFront considers the cache key when determining whether a request matches an existing cached object. If 'sessionId' is included in the cache key, then every unique sessionId generates a distinct cache entry, even though the underlying image object in S3 is identical. The most effective fix is to modify the CloudFront cache policy so volatile parameters like sessionId are excluded (or only stable parameters are used). This increases cache reuse across users and reduces repeated origin fetches. Forwarding all query strings (via origin request policy) causes CloudFront to treat each sessionId as a different variant, reducing cache hit ratio. Setting a very small TTL increases revalidation and eviction frequency, again lowering hit ratio. Disabling caching guarantees low hit ratio and high origin load. Only excluding volatile query parameters from the cache key directly addresses the root cause of cache fragmentation.

What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.