The latest articles on DEV Community by Daniel Tialila (@dan_tialila). https://dev.to/dan_tialila https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F1378709%2Fb36130ac-a8ad-444c-882e-961b1e5dd98e.png https://dev.to/dan_tialila en Daniel Tialila Wed, 17 Sep 2025 17:33:18 +0000 https://dev.to/dan_tialila/apache-kafka-in-data-engineering-for-beginners-4f8k https://dev.to/dan_tialila/apache-kafka-in-data-engineering-for-beginners-4f8k <h2> Introduction </h2> <p>Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform, designed for high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration. Think of it as a high speed message hub for your data. It lets applications publish, store and subscribe to streams of records in real-time.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F83wqti38v3geotzq272u.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F83wqti38v3geotzq272u.png" alt=" " width="473" height="333"></a></p> <h2> Key concepts in Kafka </h2> <p><strong>1. Producer</strong></p> <p>An application that sends a message to Kafka topics.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F6bjen57c3mpsfffd4po4.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F6bjen57c3mpsfffd4po4.png" alt=" " width="800" height="400"></a></p> <p><strong>2. Consumer</strong></p> <p>An application that reads message from Kafka topics.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Ft5y9p016ea4fbk0jhsvi.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Ft5y9p016ea4fbk0jhsvi.png" alt=" " width="800" height="400"></a></p> <p><strong>3. Topic</strong></p> <p>A category or feed-name to which records are sent. Think of this as a channel.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F2uxezlmyjgdj925tp03e.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F2uxezlmyjgdj925tp03e.png" alt=" " width="311" height="162"></a></p> <p><strong>4. Broker</strong></p> <p>A Kafka server. Multiple brokers form a Kafka cluster.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F5glo7uqincnztlt2vt3y.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F5glo7uqincnztlt2vt3y.png" alt=" " width="311" height="162"></a></p> <p><strong>5. Kafka Cluster</strong></p> <p>A group of Kafka brokers working together.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fglmx61s6dtiuc1rwpp11.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fglmx61s6dtiuc1rwpp11.png" alt=" " width="308" height="163"></a></p> <h2> Kafka use case </h2> <p>Imagine an e-commerce platform:</p> <ol> <li><p>Producers- Checkout service, inventory services, payment gateway.</p></li> <li><p>Kafka- Handles all events.</p></li> <li><p>Consumers- Analytics dashboard, fraud detection systems, email notifications.</p></li> </ol> <h2> Conclusion </h2> <p>Apache Kafka is a backbone for real-time data streaming.</p> dataengineering kafka