Topic creation in Kafka - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What is the output of this Kafka topic creation command?

Consider the following Kafka CLI command to create a topic named orders with 3 partitions and a replication factor of 2. What will be the output if the command runs successfully?

Kafka

kafka-topics.sh --create --topic orders --partitions 3 --replication-factor 2 --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

A No output, command runs silently.

B Created topic orders.

C Warning: Replication factor larger than available brokers.

D Error: Topic orders already exists.

💡 Hint

Think about what the Kafka CLI prints when a topic is created successfully.

When a Kafka topic is created successfully using kafka-topics.sh, the CLI prints 'Created topic .' If the topic already exists, it prints an error. If replication factor is too high, it warns. It does not run silently.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Which property defines the number of partitions when creating a Kafka topic?

When creating a Kafka topic, which configuration property controls how many partitions the topic will have?

A topic.partitions

B replication.factor

C partition.count

D num.partitions

💡 Hint

Look for the property name that clearly relates to partitions count.

The property 'num.partitions' defines how many partitions a Kafka topic will have. 'replication.factor' controls replication, others are invalid.

❓ Predict Output

advanced

What error does this Kafka topic creation command produce?

What error message will this command produce if there is only 1 broker running but the replication factor is set to 3?

Kafka

kafka-topics.sh --create --topic logs --partitions 2 --replication-factor 3 --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

A Error: Replication factor: 3 larger than available brokers: 1

B Error: Topic logs already exists.

C Created topic logs.

D Warning: Partitions count less than replication factor.

💡 Hint

Replication factor cannot be larger than the number of brokers.

Kafka requires the replication factor to be less than or equal to the number of brokers. If not, it throws an error indicating replication factor is too large.

🚀 Application

advanced

How many partitions will the topic have after this command?

You run this command to create a topic without specifying partitions. The Kafka broker's default number of partitions is set to 4. How many partitions will the new topic have?

Kafka

kafka-topics.sh --create --topic payments --replication-factor 1 --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

A 4

B 1

C 0

D Depends on the client configuration

💡 Hint

If partitions are not specified, Kafka uses the broker default.

When partitions are not specified during topic creation, Kafka uses the broker's default number of partitions, which in this case is 4.

🔧 Debug

expert

Why does this topic creation command fail with a syntax error?

Identify the syntax error in this Kafka topic creation command and explain why it fails.

Kafka

kafka-topics.sh --create --topic "user-activity" --partitions 3 --replication-factor 1 --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

A Partitions must be specified after bootstrap-server.

B Replication factor must be greater than 1.

C Missing closing quote after topic name causes syntax error.

D Topic name cannot contain hyphens.

💡 Hint

Check the quotes around the topic name carefully.

The command is missing the closing double quote after the topic name, causing the shell to treat the rest as part of the string, leading to a syntax error.