What term denotes an event that occurs when a requested data item is not found in the cache?

• A. Cache Hit
• B. Cache Miss
• C. Cache Invalidation
• D. Cache Coherence

Answer: (B)

The main concept is what happens when a requested data item isn’t in the cache. That event is called a cache miss. When a miss occurs, the system fetches the item from a slower memory level or the backing store and brings it into the cache for future accesses. If the item is found directly in the cache, it’s a cache hit, which is faster. Cache invalidation refers to marking cached data as outdated when the underlying data changes, so stale values aren’t used. Cache coherence deals with keeping multiple caches in sync across processors. So the term for the described event is a cache miss.