A two-level cache to facilitate resolving resource path expressions for a hierarchy of resources is described, which includes a system-wide shared cache and a session-level cache. The shared cache is organized as a hierarchy of hash tables that mirrors the structure of a repository hierarchy. A particular hash table in a shared cache includes information for the child resources of a particular resource. A database management system that manages a shared cache may control the amount of memory used by the cache by implementing a replacement policy for the cache based on one or more characteristics of the resources in the repository. The session-level cache is a single level cache in which information for target resources of resolved path expressions may be tracked. In the session-level cache, the resource information is associated with the entire path expression of the associated resource.