What is Apache Kafka and how does it work?

What is Apache Kafka and how does it work?

Apache Kafka is a distributed event streaming platform used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications. It allows you to publish, subscribe to, store, and process streams of records in a fault-tolerant way.

What are the main components of Kafka?

The main components of Kafka include Producers, Consumers, Topics, Brokers, and Zookeeper. Producers send data to topics, while consumers read from them. Brokers manage the storage and retrieval of data, and Zookeeper helps manage the cluster.

Can you explain how Kafka handles data durability?

Kafka ensures data durability by replicating data across multiple brokers. Each topic can be configured with a replication factor, which determines how many copies of the data are stored. This way, even if a broker fails, the data remains available.

What are some use cases for Apache Kafka?

Common use cases for Apache Kafka include real-time analytics, log aggregation, stream processing, and event sourcing. It's widely used in industries like finance, retail, and telecommunications for processing large volumes of data.