Compression (gzip, snappy, lz4) in Kafka - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is the purpose of compression in Kafka?

Compression reduces the size of messages sent over the network and stored on disk, improving throughput and saving storage space.

beginner

Name three compression codecs supported by Kafka.

Kafka supports gzip, snappy, and lz4 compression codecs.

intermediate

How does gzip compression compare to snappy in Kafka?

Gzip offers higher compression ratio but is slower, while snappy is faster but compresses less effectively.

intermediate

What is a key advantage of lz4 compression in Kafka?

Lz4 provides a good balance of fast compression and decompression speed with reasonable compression ratio, making it suitable for real-time data streams.

beginner

How do you enable compression for Kafka producers?

Set the producer configuration property 'compression.type' to 'gzip', 'snappy', or 'lz4' to enable compression.

Which Kafka compression codec typically offers the fastest compression speed?

A snappy

B gzip

C none

D lz4

lz4 is designed for fast compression and decompression, faster than snappy and gzip.

What is the default compression type in Kafka if none is specified?

A gzip

B none

C lz4

D snappy

By default, Kafka producers do not compress messages unless 'compression.type' is set.

Which compression codec is best when you want the smallest message size regardless of speed?

A gzip

B snappy

C lz4

D none

Gzip compresses data more tightly than snappy or lz4 but is slower.

How does compression affect Kafka network usage?

A Decreases network usage

B Increases network usage

C No effect on network usage

D Depends on message size only

Compression reduces the size of messages, lowering network bandwidth usage.

Which Kafka compression codec is recommended for real-time streaming with low latency?

A gzip

B snappy

C lz4

D none

Lz4 offers fast compression and decompression suitable for low latency streaming.

Explain the differences between gzip, snappy, and lz4 compression codecs in Kafka.

Think about speed versus compression size trade-offs.

Describe how to enable compression on a Kafka producer and why you might want to do it.

Consider configuration and benefits.