Apache Kafka 101: Partitioning (2023)

Recent questions

• What is Kafka?

  Kafka is a distributed system designed to operate across multiple computers, allowing topics to be partitioned into multiple logs that can live on separate nodes in the Kafka cluster.

• How does partitioning work in Kafka?

  Partitioning in Kafka involves breaking a single topic log into multiple logs, with messages distributed round-robin among partitions if they have no key, or using a key to determine the partition for messages, ensuring messages with the same key always land in the same partition and are in strict guaranteed order.

• Why is using keys for partitioning important in Kafka?

  Using keys for partitioning in Kafka allows for messages associated with the same key, like events from a specific customer, to always arrive in order when read back out, despite the possibility of a very active key creating a larger and more active partition.

• What is the benefit of partitioning topics in Kafka?

  Partitioning topics in Kafka allows for scalability and fault tolerance by distributing data across multiple nodes, enabling parallel processing and ensuring high availability of data.

• How does Kafka ensure message order within partitions?

  Kafka ensures message order within partitions by using keys to determine the partition for messages, ensuring that messages with the same key always land in the same partition and are in strict guaranteed order when read back out.