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Message Brokers Flashcards

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1
Q

What are publishers or producers?

A

A publisher is any component, service, or program that creates and sends messages or data to a communication channel, system, or topic.

It doesn’t need to know who will receive the data — it just makes the information available.

The message can be any structure — it doesn’t have to be a key–value pair.

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2
Q

What is the primary role of Kafka?

A

Kafka acts as a distributed event streaming platform for high-throughput data pipelines.

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3
Q

True or false: Kafka is designed for real-time data processing.

A

TRUE

Kafka allows for processing streams of records in real-time.

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4
Q

Fill in the blank: Kafka uses a ________ to store messages.

A

topic

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5
Q

What is a producer in Kafka?

A

A client application that sends records to a Kafka topic.

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6
Q

Define consumer in the context of Kafka.

A

A client application that reads records from a Kafka topic.

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7
Q

What does partitioning in Kafka achieve?

A

It allows for parallel processing and scalability by dividing topics into multiple segments.

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8
Q

True or false: Kafka guarantees message ordering within a partition.

A

TRUE

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9
Q

What is a Kafka cluster?

A

A group of Kafka brokers working together to manage message streams.

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10
Q

Define offset in Kafka.

A

A unique identifier for each message within a partition, indicating its position.

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11
Q

What is the purpose of replication in Kafka?

A

To ensure data durability and availability by duplicating messages across multiple brokers.

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12
Q

Fill in the blank: Kafka’s ________ API allows for stream processing.

A

Streams

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13
Q

What is a consumer group?

A

A group of consumers that share the workload of reading from a topic.

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14
Q

True or false: Kafka supports exactly-once message delivery semantics.

A

TRUE

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15
Q

What does Kafka Connect do?

A

It simplifies the integration of Kafka with external systems for data import/export.

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16
Q

Define schema registry in Kafka.

A

A service that stores and manages schemas for Kafka messages, ensuring compatibility.

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17
Q

What is the purpose of Kafka Streams?

A

To process and analyze data in real-time directly within Kafka.

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18
Q

Fill in the blank: Zookeeper is used by Kafka for ________ management.

A

cluster

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19
Q

What is a log segment in Kafka?

A

A file that contains a portion of the messages for a Kafka topic partition.

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20
Q

True or false: Kafka can handle both batch and stream processing.

A

TRUE

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21
Q

What is the retention policy in Kafka?

A

Rules that determine how long messages are stored before being deleted.

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22
Q

Define kafka-console-producer.

A

A command-line tool to send messages to a Kafka topic for testing.

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23
Q

What is backpressure in streaming systems?

A

A mechanism to slow down data production when consumers cannot keep up.

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24
Q

Fill in the blank: Kafka’s durability is achieved through ________.

A

replication

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25
What is a **kafka-console-consumer**?
A command-line tool to read messages from a Kafka topic for testing.
26
True or false: Kafka can be used for **event sourcing**.
TRUE
27
What does **log compaction** do in Kafka?
It retains only the latest message for each key, reducing storage usage.
28
Define **Kafka Producer API**.
An API that allows applications to send records to Kafka topics.
29
What is the **Kafka Consumer API**?
An API that allows applications to read records from Kafka topics.
30
Fill in the blank: Kafka uses a **________** to ensure message delivery.
commit log
31
What is **stream processing**?
The continuous input and output of data streams for real-time analysis.
32
True or false: Kafka supports **multi-tenancy**.
TRUE
33
What is a **topic partition**?
A division of a topic that allows for parallel processing of messages.
34
Define **Kafka Connectors**.
Plugins that enable Kafka to connect with various data sources and sinks.
35
What is the **Kafka Admin API**?
An API for managing and configuring Kafka topics and other resources.
36
Fill in the blank: **Kafka** is often used for **________** applications.
event-driven
37
What is a **dead letter queue**?
A queue for messages that cannot be processed successfully.
38
True or false: Kafka can store messages indefinitely.
FALSE ## Footnote Kafka has configurable retention policies that limit message storage duration.
39
What is **streaming analytics**?
The real-time analysis of data streams to derive insights and actions.
40
Define **Kafka's throughput**.
The rate at which messages are produced and consumed, often measured in messages per second.
41
What is a **Kafka broker**?
A server that stores messages and serves client requests in a Kafka cluster.
42
Fill in the blank: **Kafka** is designed for high ________ and low latency.
throughput
43
What is **event-driven architecture**?
A software architecture pattern that uses events to trigger actions and workflows.
44
True or false: Kafka is not suitable for **large-scale** applications.
FALSE
45
What does **Kafka's scalability** refer to?
The ability to increase capacity by adding more brokers and partitions.
46
Define **Kafka's durability**.
The capability to retain messages even in the event of broker failures.
47
What is a **streaming application**?
An application that processes and reacts to data streams in real-time.
48
Fill in the blank: **Kafka** supports **________** processing of data.
real-time
49
Define **message broker**.
A software that facilitates communication between applications by receiving, routing, and delivering messages.
50
What is the role of **Kafka producer**?
A Kafka producer sends records to Kafka topics for processing.
51
True or false: **Kafka** is a distributed streaming platform.
TRUE ## Footnote Kafka handles real-time data feeds and is fault-tolerant.
52
Fill in the blank: A **topic** in Kafka is a category for _______.
messages
53
What is a **partition** in Kafka?
A partition is a subset of a topic that allows for parallel processing.
54
Define **consumer group**.
A group of consumers that share the workload of reading from a topic.
55
What does a **Kafka consumer** do?
A Kafka consumer reads messages from Kafka topics.
56
True or false: Each Kafka topic can have multiple partitions.
TRUE
57
Fill in the blank: **Offsets** are used to track ______ in Kafka.
the position of messages within a partition
58
What is the purpose of **replication** in Kafka?
To ensure data durability and availability by duplicating partitions across brokers.
59
Define **broker** in Kafka.
A Kafka broker is a server that stores data and serves client requests.
60
What is the **default replication factor** in Kafka?
The default replication factor is 1.
61
True or false: Kafka guarantees message ordering within a partition.
TRUE
62
Fill in the blank: A **key** in Kafka messages is used for _______.
partitioning messages
63
What is **Kafka Streams**?
A library for building applications and microservices that process data in Kafka.
64
Define **log compaction**.
A feature that retains the latest value for each key in a topic.
65
What is the **role of a schema registry**?
To manage and enforce data schemas for Kafka messages.
66
True or false: Kafka can only handle text messages.
FALSE ## Footnote Kafka can handle various data formats, including JSON and Avro.
67
Fill in the blank: **Consumer lag** indicates the difference between _______.
the latest message and the last message read by a consumer
68
What is **Kafka Connect**?
A tool for integrating Kafka with external systems for data import/export.
69
Define **stream processing**.
The continuous processing of data streams in real-time.
70
What is the **maximum partition limit** in Kafka?
The maximum number of partitions per topic is configurable, typically up to 2,147,483,647.
71
True or false: Kafka supports exactly-once delivery semantics.
TRUE
72
Fill in the blank: **Producers** can send messages to Kafka using the _______ API.
Producer
73
What is the **purpose of a topic configuration**?
To define settings like retention time and cleanup policies for a topic.
74
Define **retention policy** in Kafka.
A setting that determines how long messages are retained in a topic.
75
What is a **partition leader**?
The broker responsible for all reads and writes for a partition.
76
True or false: Consumers can read from multiple topics simultaneously.
TRUE
77
Fill in the blank: **Kafka** uses a _______ architecture for scalability.
distributed
78
What does **Kafka's high throughput** refer to?
The ability to handle large volumes of messages efficiently.
79
Define **end-to-end latency** in Kafka.
The time taken from producing a message to consuming it.
80
What is the **role of a consumer offset**?
To track the last message processed by a consumer in a topic.
81
True or false: Kafka topics can be configured to be **compact**.
TRUE
82
Fill in the blank: **Kafka** is often used for _______ processing.
real-time
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