Kafka
A distributed event streaming platform that handles millions of events per second. Used by LinkedIn, Netflix, and Uber for real-time data pipelines.
What is Kafka?
A distributed event streaming platform that handles millions of events per second. Used by LinkedIn, Netflix, and Uber for real-time data pipelines.
Kafka is a intermediate-level concept that sits in the Messaging & Event Systems area of system design. Engineers reach for it whenever they need to reason about real-world trade-offs in that space — not just for textbook correctness, but because real production systems at companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Google make these decisions every day.
If you want to go deeper than this definition — with diagrams, code, and a quiz to lock it in — work through the "Kafka" lesson linked below. It walks through the why, the mechanism, the trade-offs, and how the giants actually use it in production.
Learn Kafka in depth
Full interactive lesson with diagrams, code examples, real-world references, and a quiz.
Open the Kafka lessonRelated lessons
Lessons that touch on Kafka as part of a larger topic.
Apache Avro
Schema-evolution-friendly binary serialization, the serialization format built for big data
intermediate · api design protocols
Schema Registry
A central repository for API schemas, enforce compatibility, enable evolution, prevent breaking changes
intermediate · api design protocols
Change Data Capture (CDC)
Capture every database change as a stream of events, the backbone of modern data pipelines
intermediate · data replication distribution
Pub/Sub Pattern
One publisher, many subscribers, the pattern that powers event-driven systems at scale
intermediate · messaging event systems
Message Ordering
Guaranteeing messages arrive in the right sequence, harder than it sounds
intermediate · messaging event systems
See also
Related glossary terms you might want to look up next.
Pub/Sub
A messaging pattern where publishers send messages to topics, and subscribers receive messages from topics they care about. Publishers don't know who's listening.
Message Queue
A buffer that stores messages between producers and consumers. Messages are processed one by one, in order. Think of it as a to-do list for your services.
Event Sourcing
Storing every state change as an immutable event instead of just the current state. You can rebuild any past state by replaying events.