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You set retention.ms to a negative value in Kafka topic config. What is the likely outcome?

medium📝 Debug Q14 of 15
Kafka - Topics and Partitions
You set retention.ms to a negative value in Kafka topic config. What is the likely outcome?
AKafka treats it as infinite retention (never deletes data)
BKafka throws a configuration error and refuses to start
CKafka deletes data immediately after creation
DKafka uses default retention time instead
Step-by-Step Solution
Solution:

  1. Step 1: Check Kafka behavior for negative retention.ms

    Kafka interprets negative retention.ms as infinite retention, meaning no data deletion.

  2. Step 2: Confirm other options

    Kafka does not throw error or delete immediately; it does not revert to default automatically.

  3. Final Answer:

    Kafka treats it as infinite retention (never deletes data) -> Option A

  4. Quick Check:

    Negative retention.ms means infinite retention [OK]
Quick Trick: Negative retention.ms disables deletion, keeps data forever [OK]
Common Mistakes:
  • Expecting an error on negative value
  • Assuming immediate deletion
  • Thinking default value applies automatically

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