Compression (gzip, snappy, lz4) in Kafka - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What is the output of this Kafka producer compression setting?

Consider a Kafka producer configured with the following properties:

props.put("compression.type", "gzip");
props.put("batch.size", 16384);
props.put("linger.ms", 5);

What compression type will Kafka use to compress the messages before sending?

A gzip compression

B snappy compression

C lz4 compression

D no compression

💡 Hint

Check the value assigned to the 'compression.type' property.

The 'compression.type' property controls the compression codec used by Kafka producer. Setting it to 'gzip' means messages are compressed using gzip before sending.

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What error occurs with unsupported compression codec in Kafka?

Given this Kafka producer configuration:

props.put("compression.type", "brotli");

What happens when the producer tries to send messages?

A Messages are sent without compression

B Producer silently ignores the compression setting

C Messages are compressed using gzip as fallback

D Kafka throws an IllegalArgumentException at runtime

💡 Hint

Check Kafka's supported compression codecs.

Kafka supports only 'none', 'gzip', 'snappy', and 'lz4' by default. Setting an unsupported codec like 'brotli' causes an IllegalArgumentException when sending messages.

🚀 Application

advanced

How to configure Kafka consumer to decompress messages compressed with snappy?

You have a Kafka topic where messages are compressed using snappy by the producer.

Which consumer configuration ensures messages are decompressed correctly?

A Set 'compression.type' to 'snappy' in consumer properties

B No special configuration needed; Kafka consumer auto-detects compression

C Set 'fetch.min.bytes' to a higher value

D Set 'enable.auto.commit' to false

💡 Hint

Think about how Kafka consumers handle compression.

Kafka consumers automatically detect and decompress messages compressed by producers. No special configuration is needed for snappy or other supported codecs.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

Why might you choose lz4 compression over gzip in Kafka?

Select the main reason to prefer lz4 compression instead of gzip for Kafka message compression.

A lz4 is the only compression supported by Kafka brokers

B lz4 produces the smallest compressed files compared to gzip

C lz4 offers faster compression and decompression speeds with moderate compression ratio

D lz4 compression is more CPU intensive than gzip

💡 Hint

Consider speed vs compression ratio trade-offs.

lz4 is designed for very fast compression and decompression with a reasonable compression ratio, making it suitable for high-throughput Kafka environments. gzip compresses better but is slower.

🔧 Debug

expert

What is the cause of this Kafka producer runtime error with gzip compression?

A Kafka producer configured with:

props.put("compression.type", "gzip");
props.put("batch.size", 0);

When sending messages, it throws:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: batch.size must be > 0

What is the root cause?

A batch.size cannot be zero; it must be a positive integer

B gzip compression requires batch.size to be at least 16384

C compression.type 'gzip' is incompatible with batch.size setting

D linger.ms must be set when using gzip compression

💡 Hint

Check the error message carefully.

The error clearly states batch.size must be greater than zero. Setting batch.size to zero is invalid regardless of compression type.