**Why it matters**: At scale, design choices directly impact reliability, latency, and cost. Wrong decisions compound across jobs and teams.
Kafka consumer → database: Use Kafka Connect with JDBC sink, or custom Spark/Kafka consumer. Example Spark: `spark.readStream.format('kafka')...` then `foreachBatch` to write to DB. Python consumer: `from kafka import KafkaConsumer; consumer = KafkaConsumer('topic'); for msg in consumer: cursor.execute(insert_sql, msg.value)`....
The complete answer continues with detailed implementation patterns, architectural trade-offs, and production-grade considerations. It covers performance optimization strategies, common pitfalls to avoid, and real-world examples from companies like Fragma Data Systems. The answer also includes follow-up discussion points that interviewers commonly explore.
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