Apache Kafka Practice Exam 2025 – The Complete All-in-One Guide for Exam Success!

The distinction between a leader and a follower in Kafka replication is primarily characterized by their roles in processing read and write requests. The leader is the definitive source for a partition and is responsible for both accepting and processing all read and write requests for that partition. This central role ensures that all total writes to the partition are directed through the leader, maintaining consistency and integrity of data.

On the other hand, followers replicate the data from the leader but do not process client requests directly. They maintain a copy of the data from the leader to ensure redundancy and fault tolerance within the system. This setup allows Kafka to handle requests efficiently while ensuring data availability, as followers can take over the responsibilities of the leader if it fails.

The other options do not accurately capture the unique responsibilities associated with leaders and followers in Kafka. For instance, although the leader does play a crucial role in replication, the statement that the leader handles replication while followers do not oversimplifies their interaction. Similarly, options regarding topic configurations or storage permanence do not reflect the core functional delineation that is vital for Kafka's operation.