Topic configuration in Kafka - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is a Kafka topic configuration?

A Kafka topic configuration is a set of settings that control how a topic behaves, such as retention time, number of partitions, and replication factor.

beginner

What does the 'retention.ms' configuration control in a Kafka topic?

The 'retention.ms' setting controls how long Kafka keeps the messages in a topic before deleting them, measured in milliseconds.

beginner

How does the 'partitions' setting affect a Kafka topic?

The 'partitions' setting defines how many parts a topic is split into, allowing parallel processing and scalability.

intermediate

What is the role of 'replication.factor' in Kafka topic configuration?

The 'replication.factor' determines how many copies of each partition are kept across different brokers for fault tolerance.

intermediate

How can you change a Kafka topic's configuration after it is created?

You can use Kafka's command-line tools or APIs to alter topic configurations like retention time or cleanup policy without deleting the topic.

Which configuration controls how long messages are stored in a Kafka topic?

A partitions

B cleanup.policy

C replication.factor

D retention.ms

The 'retention.ms' setting controls the message retention time in milliseconds.

What does increasing the number of partitions in a topic do?

A Increases replication factor

B Decreases message retention time

C Increases parallelism and throughput

D Changes the topic name

More partitions allow more consumers to read in parallel, improving throughput.

What is the default replication factor if not set explicitly?

A 2

B 1

C 3

D 0

By default, Kafka sets replication factor to 1, meaning no replication.

Which tool can be used to change topic configuration after creation?

A kafka-configs.sh

B kafka-topics.sh

C kafka-console-producer.sh

D kafka-console-consumer.sh

'kafka-configs.sh' is used to alter topic configurations.

What does the 'cleanup.policy' configuration control?

A How messages are deleted or compacted

B Number of partitions

C Replication factor

D Message format

'cleanup.policy' defines whether messages are deleted or compacted.

Explain the key configurations you can set for a Kafka topic and their effects.

Think about message storage time, parallelism, fault tolerance, and message deletion.

How can you update a Kafka topic's configuration after it has been created? Describe the process.

Focus on tools and commands used to change settings safely.