Apache Kafka is a high-performance distributed messaging system widely used for building real-time data streaming platforms. Mastering key concepts and skills is crucial for Kafka interviews. Here are 17 common Kafka interview questions and detailed answers to help you prepare effectively. 1. What is Kafka? 2. What is the basic architecture of Kafka? 3. How are messages stored in Kafka? 4. Explain the roles of Producer and Consumer. 5. What is Kafka's partitioning mechanism? 6. What are the message guarantee mechanisms in Kafka? 7. Provide a detailed explanation of Kafka's replication mechanism. 8. What is Kafka Connect? 9. What does ISR mean in Kafka? 10. How to handle delayed messages in Kafka? 11. Explain the transaction mechanism in Kafka. 12. How is message order ensured in Kafka? 13. How to monitor and optimize a Kafka cluster? 14. What is ACL in Kafka? 15. What is Kafka Streams? 16. Comparison of Kafka with other message brokers. 17. How to deal with data loss in Kafka? These questions cover core concepts, architecture, and some advanced features of Kafka, making it a valuable resource for anyone preparing for Kafka interviews.