Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka® (CCDAK) By CertifiKation

Module 1: Kafka Fundamentals

• Kafka architecture: brokers, topics, partitions
• Producers, consumers, replication, offset management
• Kafka’s durability and reliability mechanisms
• Kafka CLI commands (create, describe, consume, produce)

Module 2: Kafka Producer API

• Sending messages to topics
• Async vs sync sending
• Acknowledgment levels (acks)
• Producer configs: retries, batching, compression
• Idempotent producers and delivery guarantees

Module 3: Kafka Consumer API

• Consuming messages from topics
• Consumer groups, rebalancing, offset tracking
• Commit strategies (auto vs manual)
• Error handling and backpressure
• Working with KafkaListener (Spring Kafka)

Module 4: Kafka Streams API (High Priority for CCDAK)

• Stream vs Table concepts
• Stateless and stateful operations
• KStreams and KTables
• Joins, windowing, aggregations
• Running and scaling stream processing apps

Module 5: Schema Management & Serialization

• Avro, JSON, and Protobuf formats
• Introduction to Schema Registry
• Enforcing schemas with Kafka topics
• Versioning and compatibility
• Using Confluent Serializers and Deserializers

Module 6: Kafka Connect

• Purpose of Kafka Connect
• Source and sink connectors
• Standalone vs distributed mode
• Running connectors for MySQL, Elasticsearch, etc.
• Custom connectors (optional)

Module 7: Kafka Security Basics

• Encryption with SSL/TLS
• Authentication with SASL
• ACLs and authorization
• Basic security setup for exam awareness

Module 8: Kafka Monitoring & Reliability

• Kafka metrics and monitoring tools (JMX, Confluent Control Center)
• Lag monitoring and handling
• High availability, replication, ISR
• Handling failures and ensuring delivery guarantees

Exam Preparation Module

• Overview of the CCDAK exam pattern
• 60 multiple choice questions in 90 minutes
• Real-world scenario-based questions
• Practice questions and mock tests
• Key areas to focus (Kafka Streams, consumer groups, schema registry)

Capstone Project (Optional but Valuable)

Build a streaming data pipeline

• Source system → Kafka Connect → Kafka topic
• Stream processing with Kafka Streams
• Sink to database/Elastic
• Schema Registry implementation

Prerequisites

• Basic knowledge of Java (or Python)
• Understanding of distributed systems is helpful
• Prior Core Kafka experience recommended

Certification Info

• Name: Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka (CCDAK)
• Format: Online, proctored
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Passing Score: ~75%
• Validity: 2 years
• Book Exam: https://training.confluent.io/examdetail/confluent-dev