Cloudflare edge-cache inconsistency

hey everyone, struggling a bit with Cloudflare's edge-cache for some dynamic API responses. i'm trying to fine-tune it for dynamic caching, but i'm seeing super unpredictable cf-cache-status (HIT, BYPASS, DYNAMIC) even when my Cache-Control headers and Page Rules seem correct. here's what i mean, running a few curl requests:

curl -svo /dev/null https://api.mysaas.com/data | grep 'cf-cache-status'
< cf-cache-status: HIT
< cf-cache-status: BYPASS
< cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC

what strategies do you guys use to ensure consistent edge-cache behavior for dynamic, authenticated content without fully bypassing the cache? i'm really looking for something stable here. help a brother out please...