A soft cap is the minimum needed for the project to proceed and a hard cap is the amount that they will accept no more than. For instance a soft cap could be 10 million and a hard cap 30 million meaning if the project does not attain 10 million it will not proceed and also if it reaches 30 million no more can be contributed.
Agreed after the hardcap is already reached,the project will go on and after the ICO ends the coin will be listed to exchanges.
not all projects can reach the hard cap, provided the soft cap has been reached the coin can be registered on the exchange bus.