A tailored course, built for your situation
Mastering Event-Driven Systems with Kafka and Cloud Integration
A tailored path to scaling real-time systems with confidence and precision
$199 one-time
24-hour access provisioning
30-day money-back guarantee
Hand-built implementation playbook
12 modules. 12 chapters per module. 144 chapters total.
12 modules, each with 12 chapters (144 chapters total), text-based, plus downloadable templates and a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.
Building event-driven systems that scale, without the chaos, is harder than it should be.
The situation this course is for
You're trusted to deliver reliable, high-throughput integrations using Kafka and cloud platforms, but the pieces don’t always fit cleanly. Schema drift, consumer lag, and testing gaps slow momentum. Best practices feel scattered. You need a unified approach that works at scale, not just in theory.
Who this is for
Senior software engineer leading integration and event-driven design in cloud environments, with hands-on Kafka and enterprise tooling experience.
Who this is not for
This is not for junior developers or those only doing point-to-point API integrations. It’s not for teams relying solely on low-code without deep observability.
What you walk away with
- Architect Kafka topologies that scale predictably
- Design idempotent, fault-tolerant consumers
- Implement schema governance that prevents drift
- Integrate cloud services without coupling
- Test event flows with confidence using real patterns
The 12 modules (with all 144 chapters)
Module 1. Event-Driven Architecture Foundations
Establish core principles of event-driven systems, contrast with request-response, and define clear ownership boundaries for services.
12 chapters in this module
- What makes event-driven different
- Events vs messages vs calls
- Bounded contexts and domains
- Event sourcing basics
- When to use pub-sub
- Decoupling through events
- Event ownership model
- Payload design patterns
- Versioning strategies
- Event metadata standards
- Error event handling
- Lifecycle of an event
Module 2. Kafka Core Mechanics
Deep dive into Kafka’s architecture, including brokers, topics, partitions, replication, and how producers and consumers interact reliably.
12 chapters in this module
- How Kafka stores data
- Topic partitioning strategy
- Broker responsibilities
- Replication and ISR
- Producer ack settings
- Consumer offset management
- Retention policies
- Compaction explained
- Controller role
- ZooKeeper vs KRaft
- Idempotent producers
- Transactional writes
Module 3. Schema Design and Governance
Define robust schemas using Avro or Protobuf, enforce compatibility, and manage evolution without breaking consumers.
12 chapters in this module
- Why schema matters
- Avro vs JSON vs Protobuf
- Schema Registry setup
- Backward compatibility
- Forward compatibility
- Full compatibility modes
- Schema version lifecycle
- Subject naming rules
- Automated validation
- Error on invalid schema
- Schema evolution workflow
- Deprecation process
Module 4. Consumer Resilience Patterns
Build consumers that handle failure gracefully, avoid lag, and maintain consistency even under load or network issues.
12 chapters in this module
- Poll loop tuning
- Batch size tradeoffs
- Error handling strategies
- Dead letter queue setup
- Retry with backoff
- Idempotency design
- Exactly-once semantics
- Consumer group rebalance
- Sticky assignments
- Offset commit timing
- Monitoring consumer lag
- Graceful shutdown
Module 5. Event Testing Strategies
Validate event flows end-to-end using containerized environments, contract testing, and replay techniques.
12 chapters in this module
- Unit testing producers
- Mocking Kafka in tests
- Testcontainers setup
- Consumer integration tests
- Contract testing events
- Event snapshot testing
- Replay in staging
- Canary event routing
- Fault injection
- Chaos testing events
- Schema drift detection
- Automated conformance checks
Module 6. Cloud Integration Patterns
Connect Kafka to cloud services securely and efficiently, avoiding anti-patterns that create coupling or bottlenecks.
12 chapters in this module
- Event bridge services
- Lambda triggers
- S3 event sinks
- Pub/Sub interoperability
- API gateway events
- Cloud function triggers
- Secrets management
- IAM role design
- VPC peering setup
- PrivateLink usage
- Cross-cloud events
- Hybrid topology design
Module 7. Observability and Monitoring
Implement meaningful metrics, tracing, and alerting tailored to event-driven systems, not generic infrastructure.
12 chapters in this module
- Key Kafka metrics
- Consumer lag monitoring
- End-to-end tracing
- Event lineage tracking
- Log correlation IDs
- Alert thresholds
- SLOs for events
- Dashboard templates
- Error rate tracking
- Schema change alerts
- Broker health checks
- Topic usage trends
Module 8. Security and Compliance
Secure event flows with encryption, access controls, and audit trails that meet enterprise standards.
12 chapters in this module
- TLS for brokers
- SASL authentication
- RBAC for topics
- Encryption at rest
- Audit log setup
- Data masking rules
- PII handling
- Retention compliance
- SOC2 controls
- Access review process
- Key rotation
- Zero-trust event flow
Module 9. Scaling Kafka Clusters
Grow Kafka clusters efficiently, balance load, and avoid hotspots while maintaining availability and performance.
12 chapters in this module
- Partition sizing rules
- Broker capacity planning
- Rebalancing clusters
- Tiered storage usage
- Quotas and throttling
- Cross-cluster replication
- Multi-region design
- Zonal failover
- Load testing events
- Auto-scaling brokers
- Monitoring throughput
- Capacity forecasting
Module 10. Migration from Legacy Integration
Replace monolithic ESB or low-code tools with Kafka-based pipelines without disrupting existing systems.
12 chapters in this module
- Assessing legacy systems
- Strangler pattern
- Dual writing setup
- Traffic shadowing
- Event replay testing
- Cutover checklist
- Backward compatibility
- Decommissioning path
- Monitoring transition
- Stakeholder comms
- Rollback plan
- Post-migration review
Module 11. Event Mesh and Federation
Extend event-driven patterns across teams and domains using event mesh principles and governance.
12 chapters in this module
- Event mesh definition
- Domain event sharing
- Federation gateways
- Event portal usage
- Discovery mechanisms
- Cross-team contracts
- Ownership delegation
- Event versioning
- Consumer onboarding
- API for events
- Standardization playbooks
- Governance council
Module 12. Operational Excellence
Sustain event-driven systems long-term with runbooks, automation, and feedback loops that prevent drift.
12 chapters in this module
- Runbook templates
- Incident response flow
- Post-mortem process
- Automated recovery
- Change approval
- Drift detection
- Documentation sync
- Team onboarding
- Knowledge sharing
- Tooling standardization
- Feedback from prod
- Continuous improvement
How this maps to your situation
- Scaling Kafka in production
- Migrating from ESB to event-first
- Reducing integration defects
- Improving system resilience
Before vs. after
Before
Juggling Kafka complexity, schema drift, and integration gaps without a clear framework.
After
Confidently shipping scalable, observable, and maintainable event-driven systems with proven patterns.
What's included with your purchase
- 12 modules with 12 chapters each (144 chapters)
- Downloadable templates and worked examples for every module
- Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Delivery and format
- Course and learning environment access provisioned within 24 hours of purchase
- Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access
Format: Text-based modules and chapters in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every chapter, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.
Time investment: Approximately 8, 10 hours per module, designed for engineers working full-time. Total investment: 96, 120 hours over 12 weeks with flexible pacing.
If nothing changes
Without a structured approach, event-driven projects risk becoming fragile, hard to debug, and costly to maintain, leading to rework, outages, and stalled innovation.
How this compares to the alternatives
Unlike generic Kafka courses, this focuses on real-world integration challenges, cloud patterns, and operational resilience, specifically for senior engineers in enterprise settings. No fluff, no filler, no outdated examples.
Frequently asked
Who is this course for?
Senior software engineers building or maintaining event-driven systems with Kafka in cloud environments.
How is the course structured?
12 modules, each containing 12 chapters (144 chapters total).
Is there video content?
No. The course is text-based with detailed examples and templates for immediate implementation.
$199 one-time. Approximately 8, 10 hours per module, designed for engineers working full-time. Total investment: 96, 120 hours over 12 weeks with flexible pacing..
Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.
30-day money-back guarantee·
144 chapters·
Hand-built playbook included·
Account access within 24 hours