Drupal Performance & Security Flashcards

Which Drupal core module caches fully rendered pages for anonymous users to reduce server load?

Answer: Internal Page Cache

The Internal Page Cache module caches rendered pages for anonymous users, serving subsequent requests directly from cache without bootstrapping Drupal fully.

What does Drupal's BigPipe module primarily accomplish?

Answer: Streams cacheable page parts immediately while lazy-loading uncacheable placeholders

BigPipe improves perceived performance by streaming the cacheable portions of a page to the browser first, then filling in non-cacheable placeholders asynchronously.

What does enabling 'CSS Preprocessing' in Drupal's Performance settings do?

Answer: Combines multiple CSS files into fewer aggregated files to reduce HTTP requests

CSS Preprocessing aggregates multiple CSS files into a smaller number of combined files, reducing the number of HTTP requests needed to load a page.

What is the purpose of Drupal's cache tags system when integrating with a reverse proxy like Varnish?

Answer: Tags allow granular cache invalidation so only affected pages are purged when content changes

Cache tags allow Drupal to tell reverse proxies exactly which cached pages contain a specific piece of content, enabling precise invalidation when that content is updated.

What does a cache max-age of 0 signify in Drupal's cacheability metadata?

Answer: The element is not cacheable and must always be rendered fresh

A max-age of 0 marks a render element as not cacheable, instructing Drupal's caching system to never store or reuse that element.

Which approach allows Drupal to store cache data in fast in-memory storage instead of the database?

Answer: Integrating contributed modules like Memcache or Redis Cache as alternate cache backends

Contributed modules such as Memcache and Redis Cache replace Drupal's default database cache backend with fast in-memory stores, significantly reducing cache read/write latency.

What does enabling JavaScript aggregation in Drupal's Performance settings accomplish?

Answer: Combines multiple JS files into fewer files to reduce the number of HTTP requests

JavaScript aggregation merges multiple JS files into a smaller set of combined files, reducing the HTTP request overhead needed to load all scripts on a page.