**Why**: Invalid records corrupt downstream; validation at ingress isolates failures.
**Components**: (1) Schema Registry (Avro/Proto/JSON Schema)—versioned schemas; (2) Validate at ingress—Kafka with Schema Registry, API gateway; (3) Check required fields, types, enums; (4) Dead-letter queue for invalid.
**Evolution**: Backward/forward compatible changes. Confluent Schema Registry; producers validate before produce. For JSON: jsonschema, pydantic....
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