What is the role of the second-level cache in Hibernate and why is it used?

Second Level Cache in Hibernate is a caching mechanism that stores data between sessions and is accessible to all users of the application.

Role and advantages:

• Reduces the number of database requests by reusing previously loaded data.
• Improves application performance, especially when frequently reading the same data.
• The second level cache operates at the SessionFactory level and can be distributed, which is useful in clusters.

Unlike the first level cache (Session Cache), which exists only within a single session, the second level cache stores data longer and is accessible across different sessions.

The second level cache is used to reduce the load on the database and speed up access to frequently used data, such as reference tables or rarely changed entities.