Kafka exactly-once semantics transaction coordinator commit protocol diagram
Data Engineering

Kafka Exactly-Once Semantics: The Ultimate 2026 Deep Dive

Kafka exactly-once semantics is the most misunderstood feature in the Apache Kafka toolbox. Most teams flip processing.guarantee to exactly_once_v2, watch duplicates disappear from a test harness, and declare victory. Then a producer stalls at 03:00, [...]