
let’s go step-by-step so Kafka partitions and consumer groups are crystal clear.
1. Kafka Partition
Think of a Kafka topic as a folder and partitions as the individual files inside it.
Each partition is:
- A totally ordered log (append-only sequence of messages).
- Stored on Kafka brokers.
- Identified by an integer (0, 1, 2, …).
Why partitions matter
- Parallelism → More partitions allow more consumers to read in parallel.
- Scalability → Kafka distributes partitions across brokers for load balancing.
- Ordering → Kafka only guarantees message order within a single partition, not across the whole topic.
Example:
Topic: telemetry
with 4 partitions
Partition 0: [msg1, msg5, msg9 ...]
Partition 1: [msg2, msg6, msg10 ...]
Partition 2: [msg3, msg7, msg11 ...]
Partition 3: [msg4, msg8, msg12 ...]
Code language: CSS (css)
If a producer sends with a key (e.g., vehicle ID), Kafka uses a hash(key) % partition_count to choose the partition → same key always goes to the same partition → ordering preserved per key.
2. Kafka Consumer
A consumer is an application that reads messages from Kafka.
- It subscribes to a topic (or topics).
- Reads messages in order from one or more partitions.
- Tracks progress using offsets (like bookmarks).
3. Kafka Consumer Group

A consumer group is a set of one or more consumers that share the work of reading a topic.
Key rules:
- Each partition is assigned to only ONE consumer in the group at a time.
- A consumer can read from multiple partitions, but a partition cannot be read by multiple consumers in the same group.
Example: Topic with 4 partitions
Scenario A — 1 consumer in the group
C1 reads: P0, P1, P2, P3
➡ All work done by 1 consumer (no parallelism).
Scenario B — 2 consumers in the group
C1 reads: P0, P1
C2 reads: P2, P3
➡ Work split between 2 consumers.
Scenario C — 4 consumers in the group
C1 reads: P0
C2 reads: P1
C3 reads: P2
C4 reads: P3
➡ Maximum parallelism — each consumer gets 1 partition.
Scenario D — 6 consumers in the group
C1 reads: P0
C2 reads: P1
C3 reads: P2
C4 reads: P3
C5, C6: idle (no partitions assigned)
➡ Extra consumers sit idle because there are no spare partitions.
4. Scaling with Partitions + Consumer Groups
- Scaling limit: You cannot have more active consumers in a group than there are partitions.
- Example: 4 partitions → max 4 active consumers in the same group.
- If you need more processing power:
- Increase partitions (up to 100s or 1000s, but plan carefully).
- Use multiple consumer groups if you want all messages processed independently by multiple systems.
5. Why this matters for your telematics case
- You have 4 partitions and 1 pod with 4 threads (each thread reads one partition).
- This maxes out consumer parallelism inside one pod — you can’t scale horizontally to more pods unless you add more partitions.
- Increasing partitions to 128 means you could have up to 128 consumers in the same group, which lets you:
- Spread the load across more pods.
- Autoscale based on Kafka lag.
Quick Analogy
- Topic = highway.
- Partition = lane.
- Message = car in that lane.
- Consumer group = convoy of trucks removing cars from the lanes.
- Rule: Only one truck in the convoy can drive in a given lane at a time.
- If you want more trucks working → you need more lanes (partitions).
Here’s the clear breakdown of using a consumer group vs. not using a consumer group in Kafka, along with pros/cons for each.
1. Using a Consumer Group
Definition:
Multiple consumers share the same group.id
, and Kafka splits partitions among them. Kafka also tracks offsets per group so consumers can resume from where they left off.
Advantages
- Parallelism & Scalability
- Consumers in the same group process different partitions in parallel → faster processing.
- Can scale out by adding more consumers (up to the partition count).
- Automatic Load Balancing
- Kafka automatically reassigns partitions to consumers when instances join/leave.
- Offset Management
- Kafka stores the last read offset for each partition in the group → allows resuming after restart without reprocessing messages.
- Fault Tolerance
- If a consumer crashes, Kafka reassigns its partitions to other consumers in the group.
- Work Sharing
- Ideal for processing large topics where multiple consumers divide the workload.
Disadvantages / Limitations
- Partition limit: Max active consumers per group = number of partitions.
- Ordering: Ordering is guaranteed only within a partition, not across partitions.
- Shared work: Not all consumers see all messages; each message is delivered to only one consumer in the group.
2. Without a Consumer Group (“Standalone Consumer” or unique group ID for each)
Definition:
Each consumer has its own group.id (or no group at all), meaning Kafka treats them as separate groups and delivers all messages from all partitions to each consumer.
Advantages
- Broadcast Messaging
- Every consumer gets all messages from the topic.
- Good for fan-out scenarios (e.g., analytics service, monitoring service) where each needs a complete copy.
- Independent Offset Tracking
- Each consumer manages its own offset, unaffected by others.
- Isolation
- Failures in one consumer do not affect partition assignments of others.
Disadvantages
- No Work Sharing
- Each consumer must process the full topic workload → slower if the dataset is large.
- No load balancing across consumers.
- More Load on Brokers
- Kafka must send every message to every consumer → higher network and CPU usage.
- Manual Offset Management
- If no group is used, you might need to manage offsets manually (depends on client).
Quick Comparison Table
Feature / Behavior | Consumer Group | Without Group (Unique Group ID or No Group) |
---|---|---|
Parallel Processing | ✅ Yes, partitions split among members | ❌ No, each processes all partitions |
Load Balancing | ✅ Automatic | ❌ Manual / None |
Offset Tracking | ✅ Stored in Kafka per group | ⚠️ Per-consumer only (manual if no group) |
All Messages to All Consumers | ❌ No (one consumer per message) | ✅ Yes |
Max Parallelism | Limited by partition count | Full topic to each consumer |
Use Case | Scalability + fault tolerance | Broadcast / fan-out consumption |
When to Use Which
- Consumer group →
- Real-time processing where workload is split (e.g., telematics ingestion → BQ).
- Scale-out for throughput.
- Need fault tolerance and checkpointing.
- Without consumer group →
- Multiple independent services each need all messages (e.g., one service for analytics, one for monitoring).
- Event broadcasting.
If you want, I can draw a diagram showing the exact difference — one side with consumer groups splitting partitions, the other with all consumers reading all partitions — so you can visually show your team why consumer groups matter for scaling. Would you like me to make that?

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