BuildKit is an advanced build toolkit integrated with Docker, designed to enhance the image creation process through features like caching and parallelization, which significantly reduce build times. Initially experimental in Docker v19.03, BuildKit became the default builder with Docker v23.0, allowing developers to utilize its capabilities without additional installations. It employs a low-level build definition format to create complex build definitions and is extensible beyond Docker, being used by projects like Earthly and GitPod. A key feature is the use of cache mounts, which allow for the reuse of downloaded packages across builds, thus optimizing resources and speeding up the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. In a practical scenario, using BuildKit's caching reduced a Docker build time from 54 seconds to just 1.5 seconds for a demo payment app, showcasing its efficiency gains. Key benefits of BuildKit include improved build speed, enhanced security features for secrets handling, and the ability to skip unused build stages, all of which contribute to a more efficient development cycle.