Why Event sourcing pattern in Kafka? - Purpose & Use Cases

The Big Idea

What if you could rewind and replay every change in your system like a video?

The Scenario

Imagine you run a busy store and keep track of every sale by writing it down on paper. When you want to know your total sales or fix a mistake, you have to dig through piles of notes, which takes forever and can cause errors.

The Problem

Manually tracking changes or states is slow and risky. Mistakes happen easily, and fixing them means rewriting history or guessing what happened. It's hard to see how things changed over time or recover lost data.

The Solution

Event sourcing records every change as an event in order. Instead of just storing the final result, it keeps a full history. This way, you can rebuild the current state anytime, audit changes, and fix errors by replaying events.

Before vs After

✗ Before

updateAccountBalance(newBalance)
saveToDatabase(newBalance)

✓ After

appendEvent({type: 'BalanceUpdated', amount: 100})
replayEventsToGetCurrentBalance()

What It Enables

It lets you track every change clearly, recover from mistakes easily, and understand exactly how your data evolved over time.

Real Life Example

In a banking system, event sourcing helps record every deposit and withdrawal as an event. If there's a dispute or error, the bank can replay all transactions to see the exact account history.

Key Takeaways

Manual tracking is slow and error-prone.

Event sourcing stores every change as an event.

This makes data reliable, auditable, and easy to fix.

Practice

1. What is the main purpose of the event sourcing pattern in Kafka?

easy

A. To save every change as an event for a full history

B. To delete old data to save storage space

C. To process only the latest state without history

D. To send events only to one consumer

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand event sourcing concept

   Event sourcing means saving every change as a separate event instead of just the current state.

2. Step 2: Relate to Kafka usage

   Kafka topics store these events so consumers can read the full history and rebuild state if needed.

3. Final Answer:

   To save every change as an event for a full history -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Event sourcing = full history saved as events [OK]

Hint: Event sourcing always stores all changes, not just current state [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking event sourcing deletes old data
• Believing it only keeps latest state
• Assuming events go to only one consumer

2. Which Kafka component is primarily used to store events in event sourcing?

easy

A. Kafka Topic

B. Kafka Producer

C. Kafka Consumer

D. Kafka Broker

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify Kafka components roles

   Kafka Producer sends data, Consumer reads data, Broker manages servers, Topic stores data.

2. Step 2: Match storage role

   Events are stored in Kafka Topics, which keep the event log for consumers.

3. Final Answer:

   Kafka Topic -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Events stored in Kafka Topic [OK]

Hint: Events are stored in topics, not producers or consumers [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing producer with storage
• Thinking consumer stores events
• Mixing broker with event storage

3. Given this Kafka event stream, what will the consumer state be after processing all events?

events = [
  {"type": "create", "id": 1, "value": 10},
  {"type": "update", "id": 1, "value": 20},
  {"type": "create", "id": 2, "value": 5},
  {"type": "delete", "id": 1}
]

state = {}
for event in events:
    if event["type"] == "create" or event["type"] == "update":
        state[event["id"]] = event["value"]
    elif event["type"] == "delete":
        state.pop(event["id"], None)

print(state)

medium

A. {}

B. {"1": 20, "2": 5}

C. {"1": 10, "2": 5}

D. {"2": 5}

Solution

1. Step 1: Process each event in order

   First create id 1 with value 10, then update id 1 to 20, create id 2 with 5, then delete id 1.

2. Step 2: Determine final state

   After deletion, id 1 is removed, only id 2 with value 5 remains.

3. Final Answer:

   {"2": 5} -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Delete removes id 1, only id 2 left [OK]

Hint: Track events step-by-step to update state correctly [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Forgetting the delete event removes id 1
• Confusing update with create
• Assuming old values remain after update

4. Identify the bug in this Kafka event consumer code snippet for event sourcing:

state = {}
for event in events:
    if event["type"] == "create":
        state[event["id"]] = event["value"]
    elif event["type"] == "update":
        if event["id"] in state:
            state[event["id"]] = event["value"]
    elif event["type"] == "delete":
        del state[event["id"]]

medium

A. Missing else clause for unknown event types

B. Using del without checking if id exists causes KeyError

C. Create should not overwrite existing id

D. Update should create new id if not present

Solution

1. Step 1: Analyze delete operation

   Using del without checking if the key exists can cause a KeyError if id is missing.

2. Step 2: Check other conditions

   Update correctly checks if id exists before updating; create overwrites which is allowed; else clause is optional.

3. Final Answer:

   Using del without checking if id exists causes KeyError -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   del without check = KeyError risk [OK]

Hint: Always check key exists before deleting from dict [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Ignoring KeyError on delete
• Thinking update must create new id
• Believing create cannot overwrite

5. You want to rebuild the current state from a Kafka topic storing events using event sourcing. Which approach is best to handle a large number of events efficiently?

hard

A. Read all events from the beginning every time to rebuild state

B. Only read the latest event for each entity from the topic

C. Use snapshots periodically and then replay only recent events

D. Delete old events from the topic to reduce size

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand rebuilding state from events

   Replaying all events from the start is slow for large data; deleting events loses history.

2. Step 2: Use snapshots to optimize

   Snapshots save a recent state, so only new events after snapshot need replay, improving efficiency.

3. Final Answer:

   Use snapshots periodically and then replay only recent events -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Snapshots + replay recent events = efficient rebuild [OK]

Hint: Snapshots speed up rebuilding by avoiding full replay [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Replaying all events every time (slow)
• Deleting events loses full history
• Reading only latest event misses changes