What it does
Redpanda provides Kafka protocol compatibility and a C++ streaming broker. Its architecture uses a shard-per-core design and Raft replication.
Why it’s interesting
The shared-nothing model and Kafka compatibility invite study, but Redpanda is distributed under source-available terms rather than a standard OSI-approved license. Verify edition and usage terms.
Real-world use case
Use a local broker for Kafka-client integration tests in development.
What I can learn
- 01
Shard-per-core execution
Explore how assigning work to CPU-core shards reduces shared-state contention in a high-throughput broker.
- 02
Direct I/O and asynchronous disk paths
Understand how direct and asynchronous I/O move log data to storage while managing latency and durability.
- 03
Raft replication and partition leadership
Follow how Raft keeps replicas in agreement and how partition leadership handles broker failures.
One thing to explore
Raft and Kafka request handlers
Follow the src/v/raft implementation and connect it to the concepts above.
Explore the source (opens in a new tab)10-Minute Challenge
Produce and consume a local record
Before you start: Docker with sufficient memory; inspect license terms before production or redistribution.
- Read the current license and quickstart.
- Start a local single-node broker using the version-matched Docker command.
- Create a topic, publish one synthetic event, and consume it.