Real-Time Data Streaming with Apache Kafka and Spark (opens in new tab)

Batch processing handles 80% of data workloads. But the remaining 20% — fraud detection, real-time dashboards, event-driven architectures, IoT telemetry — require streaming. And when you need streaming at scale, Kafka + Spark Structured Streaming is the standard stack. This guide covers building a production real-time data pipeline from Kafka ingestion through stream processing to a Delta Lake sink, with practical code for every component. Architecture ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────────...