Your team hosts versioned static assets (for example, /static/app-<buildHash>.js). Each build hash never changes, but you release new files on new URLs. To maximize cache hit rate and reduce origin load using CloudFront, what should you do when generating HTTP responses for these assets?

Set Cache-Control: no-cache so CloudFront always revalidates with the origin

no-cache instructs clients and caches to revalidate before using a stored response. That behavior reduces cache hit rate and increases origin requests, which conflicts with the goal of maximizing hits and minimizing origin load.

Set Cache-Control: max-age=0 and rely on CloudFront to cache by default

max-age=0 makes the response immediately stale. That forces revalidation/conditional requests and reduces effective caching benefits, increasing origin traffic—especially for frequently requested assets.

Disable CloudFront caching and forward all headers and query strings to the origin

Disabling caching and forwarding everything prevents CloudFront from serving cached responses, guaranteeing frequent origin fetches. Forwarding all headers/query strings also increases cache fragmentation, further lowering hit rate.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Set Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable for the versioned assets — Set Cache-Control to a long-lived, versioned-assets pattern, such as Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable. Because the build-hash in the URL never changes, the response for that exact URL is effectively immutable. With appropriate CloudFront cache policy/settings, long max-age plus immutable enables CloudFront to keep the object fresh at the edge for a long time, yielding high cache hit rates and reduced origin load. New releases naturally use new URLs (new build hashes), so freshness is preserved without revalidating old objects. Why others are wrong: no-cache and max-age=0 both force revalidation behavior, which lowers cache hit rate and increases origin requests. Disabling caching (and forwarding everything) prevents edge caching and can also create cache fragmentation through overly broad cache keys.

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.