How does cookies differ from cache?

Cookies and cache are different mechanisms used by browsers for different purposes.

Cookies:

• Store small data (e.g., sessions, user settings).
• Sent to the server with each HTTP request to the corresponding domain.
• Used for authentication, maintaining state, and personalization.

Cache:

• Stores copies of resources (HTML, CSS, JS, images) to speed up page loading.
• Not sent to the server, used locally by the browser.
• Helps reduce traffic and speed up page rendering.

Example: when you visit a website, cookies may store your session ID, and cache stores saved styles and scripts to avoid re-downloading them on repeat visits.