Kafka Do's and Don'ts

Do's and Don'ts Overview

Do's and Don'ts lets you structure Apache Kafka work so it stays readable, testable, and easy to scale. Instead of ad-hoc code, you follow a clear pattern that other developers can recognise immediately.

The key is to keep do's and don'ts focused and predictable. Start from the minimal example here, then layer in only the complexity your feature actually needs.

import { Kafka, logLevel } from 'kafkajs';

const kafka = new Kafka({
  clientId: 'my-app',
  brokers: ['localhost:9092'],
  logLevel: logLevel.INFO,
});

// create producers, consumers, or an admin client from `kafka`

Every KafkaJS app starts from a Kafka client configured with a clientId and broker list.

Do's and Don'ts Example

import { Kafka } from 'kafkajs';

const kafka = new Kafka({ clientId: 'app', brokers: ['localhost:9092'] });
const producer = kafka.producer();
const consumer = kafka.consumer({ groupId: 'group' });

• Start from a minimal Do's and Don'ts example and grow it only as needed.
• Keep configuration explicit so Do's and Don'ts behaves the same in every environment.
• Name things clearly so teammates understand your Do's and Don'ts at a glance.
• Add tests around Do's and Don'ts early to lock in expected behaviour.

Apache Kafka Cheatsheet

Handy KafkaJS reference related to do's and don'ts.

How Do's and Don'ts Works in Apache Kafka

Do's and Don'ts builds on Kafka's log-based design, where producers append events to partitioned topics and consumer groups read them independently, tracking their own offsets.

Every KafkaJS app starts from a Kafka client configured with a clientId and broker list.

• Topics are split into partitions for parallelism and ordering per key.
• Producers choose a partition, usually by message key.
• Consumer groups share partitions so work scales horizontally.
• Offsets record how far each group has read.

Practical Guidance for Do's and Don'ts

In production, do's and don'ts needs attention to delivery guarantees, retries, and observability. Make handlers idempotent and monitor consumer lag closely.

Common Mistakes

• Copying do's and don'ts snippets without understanding what each line does.
• Skipping error handling and edge cases when wiring up do's and don'ts.
• Leaving do's and don'ts untested, so regressions slip into production.
• Over-engineering do's and don'ts before you actually need the extra flexibility.

Key Takeaways

• Do's and Don'ts is a core part of working effectively with Apache Kafka.
• Start small and keep do's and don'ts focused on a single responsibility.
• Apply consistent patterns so do's and don'ts scales across your project.
• Test and document do's and don'ts to keep it maintainable over time.