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Given a streaming dataset from Kafka, how would you ingest the data in real-time using Spark?

Spark/Big Datahard0.6 min readPremium
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Asked at 2 companies
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partitionspark
Expert AnswerPremium
115 wordsInterview-ready
Kafka ingestion with Spark Structured Streaming follows a standard pattern: readStream → parse → writeStream with checkpoint. **Architectural decisions**: (1) **startingOffsets**: 'earliest' for backfill, 'latest' for tail-only; use JSON per-partition offsets for exactly-once replay. (2) **Checkpoint**: Mandatory for exactly-once; stores offsets + write metadata; without it, duplicates or data loss on restart....
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