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There are 3 modules in this course
Master Apache Kafka configuration, monitoring, and optimization for production environments. This hands-on course teaches you to design high-availability topic architectures, diagnose performance bottlenecks using consumer lag analysis, and tune producers and consumers for maximum throughput while meeting strict latency SLAs. Through real-world scenarios based on challenges faced by companies like Netflix, LinkedIn, Uber, and Walmart, you'll learn to prevent data loss during broker failures, eliminate consumer lag issues, and optimize Kafka clusters processing millions of events per second. By the end of this course, you'll have the skills to build, monitor, and optimize production Kafka infrastructure that handles massive scale while maintaining reliability and performance.
This course is designed for software engineers, data platform specialists, and DevOps professionals who work with real-time data systems and want to deepen their expertise in Apache Kafka. Ideal learners already understand basic Kafka concepts and distributed systems fundamentals but seek to enhance their ability to configure, monitor, and optimize Kafka clusters for high-throughput, low-latency production environments. It’s also valuable for those preparing for roles in data engineering, site reliability, or systems performance optimization.
Learners should have a basic understanding of distributed systems and networking concepts, familiarity with command-line interfaces, and introductory knowledge of Apache Kafka fundamentals such as topics, producers, and consumers. Prior experience with Linux environments, Docker, or monitoring tools like Grafana and Prometheus will be helpful but not required.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to configure and optimize Apache Kafka clusters for high throughput, low latency, and maximum availability. You’ll gain hands-on experience in monitoring broker health, diagnosing consumer lag, and tuning producer and consumer performance for real-world production environments. With these skills, you’ll be ready to build, scale, and maintain data streaming systems that power modern, high-performance applications.
Learn to configure Kafka topics with appropriate replication factors, partition counts, and durability settings to ensure data availability during failures while optimizing for throughput and parallelism.
What's included
4 videos2 readings1 peer review
Show info about module content
4 videos•Total 26 minutes
Welcome to Kafka Optimization•5 minutes
Replication Factors and Data Durability•9 minutes
Partition Strategy for Parallelism•7 minutes
Topic Configuration Best Practices•6 minutes
2 readings•Total 10 minutes
Welcome to the Course: Course Overview•5 minutes
Kafka Replication and Partition Design Guide•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 20 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Create and Configure High-Availability Sales Events Topic•20 minutes
Monitor Performance and Identify Bottlenecks
Module 2•1 hour to complete
Module details
Master consumer lag monitoring, broker health metrics, and throughput analysis to identify and diagnose performance bottlenecks before they impact production systems.
What's included
3 videos1 reading1 peer review
Show info about module content
3 videos•Total 23 minutes
Understanding Consumer Lag and Its Impact•7 minutes
Consumer Group Sizing and Partition Assignment•8 minutes
Broker Health Monitoring and Alerts•8 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
Consumer Lag Monitoring and Troubleshooting•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 20 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Investigate and Resolve Inventory-Updates Consumer Lag•20 minutes
Optimize Producer and Consumer Performance
Module 3•2 hours to complete
Module details
Learn to tune producer batching, compression, and consumer fetch settings to maximize throughput while meeting latency SLAs. Balance competing performance requirements for production workloads.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 assignment2 peer reviews
Show info about module content
4 videos•Total 29 minutes
Producer Batching and Compression Strategies•9 minutes
Consumer Fetch Optimization•7 minutes
Broker-Side Performance Tuning•9 minutes
Course Wrap-Up and Your Kafka Journey Ahead•5 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
Kafka Performance Tuning Guide•5 minutes
1 assignment•Total 20 minutes
Optimize Kafka for Speed & Availability•20 minutes
2 peer reviews•Total 80 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Tune Producer for High Throughput While Meeting Latency SLAs•20 minutes
Project: Build and Optimize Production Kafka Cluster for E-commerce Platform•60 minutes
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What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.