Which Fabric Shortcuts Use the OneLake Cache?

DP-700 By islever Editorial Last updated

Configure Microsoft Fabric workspace settings Optimize performance

Short answer

C Only the Stores shortcut to StoreFile on Amazon S3 qualifies for the OneLake cache, since ADLS Gen2 shortcuts and files over 1 GB are excluded.

Question

You have an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account named storage1 and an Amazon S3 bucket named storage2.
You have the Delta Parquet files shown in the following table.
Exhibit: Which Fabric Shortcuts Use the OneLake Cache?
You have a Fabric workspace named Workspace1 that has the cache for shortcuts enabled. Workspace1 contains a lakehouse named Lakehouse1. Lakehouse1 has the following shortcuts:
A shortcut to ProductFile aliased as Products
A shortcut to StoreFile aliased as Stores
A shortcut to TripsFile aliased as Trips
The data from which shortcuts will be retrieved from the cache?
  1. Trips and Stores only
  2. Products and Store only
  3. Stores only Correct Answer
  4. Products only
  5. Products, Stores, and Trips

Key Takeaways

The question tests the two hard limits of OneLake shortcut caching — supported cloud source types and the 1 GB per-file cap — and the trap is assuming every shortcut in a workspace with caching enabled will be cached.

OneLake shortcut caching in Microsoft Fabric applies only to GCS, S3 and S3-compatible shortcuts, and individual files larger than 1 GB are never cached. Because Products points to ADLS Gen2 and Trips points to a 2 GB file, only the Stores shortcut to StoreFile is served from the cache.

Common mistake: Option B (Products and Store) is the most common wrong pick: learners assume that because Workspace1 has cache for shortcuts enabled, the ADLS-backed Products shortcut is cached, ignoring that caching is not supported for ADLS Gen2 shortcuts at all.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

The cache for shortcuts setting in Workspace1 only benefits shortcuts whose backing store is a supported caching source: Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3, and S3-compatible storage, as documented for OneLake shortcuts. Products points to ProductFile on storage1, an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account, so it is never cached; Trips points to TripsFile on storage2 (S3) but at roughly 2 GB it exceeds the individual-file ceiling of 1 GB, so it is excluded as well. Stores points to StoreFile on the S3 bucket storage2 and is only about 25 MB, so it satisfies both the supported-source and size conditions and is retrieved from the cache. Therefore Stores alone qualifies, which is option C.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option E and option A both include Trips, but a file larger than 1 GB is explicitly not cached regardless of which cloud it lives on, so any choice containing Trips fails. Options B and D include Products, which targets ADLS Gen2 — a source that shortcut caching does not support — so no amount of workspace-level enablement makes ProductFile cacheable. Option B is therefore doubly wrong for readers who reason only about file size and forget the source-type restriction, and option D is wrong on both counts since Products is unsupported while Stores and Trips are not being selected correctly.

Community Comment Notes

Tuki93 quoted the documentation directly: "Shortcut caching is currently only supported for GCS, S3 and S3 compatible shortcuts" and added that files untouched for 24 hours are purged. exnaniantwort emphasized that ADLS does not need a cache, concluding "Products is incorrect", while henryphchan and Adriel_1996 reached the same C verdict by citing the 1 GB cap on TripsFile. On the other side, prabhjot and 5dcd3a8 argued for B by stressing S3 and ADLS shortcut support generally, and gretito_g's breakdown — "ProductFile is in storage1 (Azure) → not cached" — is the clearest reason the ADLS-backed shortcut drops out.

Official Reference

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#caching

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

When a Fabric question mentions caching or performance features, first check the supported source types, then the size and retention limits — enablement at the workspace level never overrides a feature's platform restrictions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why isn't the Products shortcut cached when the workspace has caching enabled?

Products targets ProductFile on ADLS Gen2, and shortcut caching is only supported for GCS, S3 and S3-compatible shortcuts, so workspace enablement does not apply to it.

Why is the Trips shortcut excluded from the cache even though it uses Amazon S3?

TripsFile is about 2 GB, and individual files greater than 1 GB are never cached, so only smaller S3 files such as StoreFile are stored in the cache.

More DP-700 FAQ →

Discussion 60 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 30 of 60

  1. prabhjot 👍 12 Answered B
    Shortcuts are accessible from both ADLS and Amazon S3 as of the time of writing this answer. Trips is too large to be cached
  2. exnaniantwort 👍 8
    ADLS supports shortcuts, BUT the question is asking "The data from which shortcuts will be retrieved FROM THE CACHE?". ADLS does NOT need a cache. -> Products is incorrect
  3. DarioReymago 👍 8
    for this reason is B
  4. AnetaK 👍 6
    The retention period for cached files can be set from 1-28 days. (same link as obove)
  5. henryphchan 👍 5 Answered C
    The answer is C. Please refer to MS docs (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts) - Shortcut caching can be used to reduce egress costs associated with cross-cloud data access. - Shortcut caching is currently only supported for GCS, S3 and S3 compatible shortcuts.
Show 25 more comments
  1. 5dcd3a8 👍 5 Answered B
    Most Probably the correct answer is B Shortcut caching is currently supported for GCS, S3, S3 compatible, and on-premises data gateway shortcuts. Individual files greater than 1 GB in size aren't cached. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#caching
  2. gretito_g 👍 5 Answered C
    ProductFile is in storage1 (Azure) → not cached. TripsFile is in storage2 (Amazon S3), but it's 2 GB, which is large → not cached. StoreFile is in storage2 (Amazon S3) and only 25 MB → likely to be cached.
  3. Adriel_1996 👍 4 Answered C
    ProductFile is part of ADLS GEN2 which according documentation "Shortcut caching is currently only supported for GCS, S3 and S3 compatible shortcuts." hence is not caching. TripsFile exccede 1 GB size Only StoreFile support caching and has the right size Based on: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts Caching and S3 shortcuts
  4. 01ceacf 👍 4 Answered B
    File greater than 1GB in size are not cached. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts
  5. Tamele001 👍 4 Answered B
    Products and store because they have less than a GB
  6. vish9 👍 3 Answered B
    In Microsoft Fabric, when the cache for shortcuts is enabled, the caching mechanism applies based on the file size and source location. ProductFile (50MB) from storage1 (Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2) Cached ✅ (because it's from Azure Data Lake and is small) TripsFile (2GB) from storage2 (Amazon S3) Not cached ❌ (because it's larger than 1GB) StoreFile (25MB) from storage2 (Amazon S3) Cached ✅ (because it's smaller than 1GB) Cache Behavior: Files ≤ 1GB from Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) or Amazon S3 are cached. Files > 1GB are not cached. Answer: The data retrieved from the cache will be Products (ProductFile) and Stores (StoreFile).
  7. 2bc006e 👍 3 Answered C
    It is B because "Shortcut caching is currently supported for GCS, S3, S3 compatible, and on-premises data gateway shortcuts." please, read the notes in the documentation in the section Caching https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#cache-shortcuts
  8. medeirosLF 👍 3 Answered C
    Shortcut caching is currently only supported for GCS, S3 and S3 compatible shortcuts. If a file hasn’t been accessed for more than 24 hrs it's purged from the cache. Individual files greater than 1 GB in size aren't cached
  9. Acrious 👍 3 Answered C
    ADLS Shortcut Caching is still NOT supported as of today, so there is no way it can be B, since Products is an ADLS shortcut.... that does not support caching. There is no documentation to say otherwise, just the opposite.
  10. Biju1 👍 3 Answered B
    Remember . in documentation, still you cant see ADLS. but ADLS and Dataverse support shortcut now in Fabric. Access one lake house and try. I verified
  11. Hanif53 👍 3 Answered B
    ProductFile – 50 MB → ≤ 1 GB → ✅ Cached StoreFile – 25 MB → ≤ 1 GB → ✅ Cached TripsFile – 2 GB → > 1 GB → ❌ Not cached B. Products and Store only
  12. JensQ 👍 3 Answered B
    S3 and ADLS G2 are both supported. Only limitation is the size, meaning Trips is too big to be cached.
  13. DarioReymago 👍 3 Answered B
    Individual files greater than 1 GB in size aren't cached
  14. zulajariwala 👍 2 Answered B
    Based on the current Microsoft Learn article, shortcut caching currently supports GCS, S3, S3-compatible, and on-premises gateway shortcuts—not ADLS Gen2. The same article also says individual files larger than 1 GB are not cached. So the rule is: S3-backed shortcut + file ≤ 1 GB → cached ADLS Gen2-backed shortcut → not retrieved from shortcut cache Any file > 1 GB → not cached Using that rule on your question, the cached shortcuts are the ones pointing to the Amazon S3 bucket and under 1 GB. In this question, that is: B. Products and Store only
  15. Bin_Hashim 👍 2 Answered A
    Answer: A — Trips and Stores only Why: Fabric’s Cache for shortcuts currently caches data only for shortcuts that point to external cloud storage outside Azure (e.g., Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage). Shortcuts to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) are not cached. ProductFile → storage1 (ADLS Gen2) → not cached TripsFile → storage2 (Amazon S3) → cached StoreFile → storage2 (Amazon S3) → cached So reads from the cache will come from Trips and Stores only.
  16. tejas29 👍 2 Answered C
    Products, 50 MB, ADLS Gen2: ❌ ADLS Gen2 supports shortcuts, but it is not a supported source for OneLake shortcut caching. Do not confuse this with Spark Intelligent Cache. Stores, 25 MB, Amazon S3: ✅ S3 shortcut caching is supported, and the file is below the cache size limit. Microsoft specifically documents S3 shortcut caching to reduce cross-cloud egress. Trips, 2 GB, Amazon S3: ❌ Although S3 supports shortcut caching, files larger than 1 GB aren't cached.
  17. DarkDerf 👍 2 Answered D
    Since caching works only for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, the shortcuts pointing to Amazon S3 (storage2) will not be retrieved from the cache. Evaluating the shortcuts: Products (shortcut to ProductFile - ADLS Gen2) → ✅ Cached Stores (shortcut to StoreFile - Amazon S3) → ❌ Not Cached Trips (shortcut to TripsFile - Amazon S3) → ❌ Not Cached Answer: The cached data will be retrieved only for Products. Thus, the correct answer is: D. Products only
  18. MedMed009 👍 2 Answered B
    How caching works in Fabric shortcuts -When caching is enabled, Fabric will cache small external files locally in the workspace for faster access. -Large files (like the 2 GB TripsFile) are not cached — they are read directly from the external source. -Files in Azure Data Lake Gen2 are cached when shortcuts are enabled. -Files in Amazon S3 are cached only if they are small enough (like StoreFile at 25 MB).
  19. Rahalcer 👍 2 Answered C
    From Microsoft Learn : OneLake shortcuts : "Shortcut caching is supported for shortcuts that reference Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage (GCS). It isn't supported for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2." Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts And we have also : “Individual files greater than 1 GB in size aren’t cached.”
  20. cuomuqi 👍 2 Answered B
    s3 can be saved https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/create-s3-shortcut and items bigger than 1GB can not cached. "If a file hasn’t been accessed for more than 24 hrs it's purged from the cache. Individual files greater than 1 GB in size aren't cached." https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts
  21. Bs2009 👍 2 Answered C
    Microsoft says shortcut caching currently supports GCS, Amazon S3, S3-compatible, and on-premises gateway shortcuts. ADLS Gen2 shortcut data is not handled by this shortcut cache. Microsoft also states that individual files larger than 1 GB aren't cached. "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts"
  22. smanzana 👍 2 Answered C
    C is correct. -Shortcut caching is currently supported for Google Cloud Storage (GCS), Amazon S3, and S3-compatible storage. -Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) does not require or use caching since it integrates natively with OneLake, so it is not cached. -Files larger than 1 GB are not cached.
  23. medeirosLF 👍 2 Answered C
    Shortcut caching is currently only supported for GCS, S3 and S3 compatible shortcuts. If a file hasn’t been accessed for more than 24 hrs it's purged from the cache. Individual files greater than 1 GB in size aren't cached https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#caching
  24. exnaniantwort 👍 2 Answered C
    The question is asking "The data from which shortcuts will be retrieved FROM THE CACHE?". ADLS does NOT need a cache. -> Products is incorrect Tripfile exceeds 1GB -> Trips is incorrect Stores is from S3 and supported by shortcut caching. -> Stores is correct
  25. 92ef42d 👍 2
    It is C. ADLS Gen2 is not supported: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#caching Files > 1GB are not supported: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#caching

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