Thriving.dev Learning Resources for Software Architects and Engineers

How Do You Architect a Kafka Streams Topology?

Presented at

20-21 May 2025 • London, UK • Current London 2025
27 May 2025 • Frankfurt, Germany • TechEvenings Frankfurt
15 May 2025 • Berlin, Germany • Berlin Apache Kafka® Meetup by Confluent

Abstract

Struggled with the complexity of designing Kafka Streams applications? Without sufficient up-front architecture work, it’s all too easy to stumble into misunderstandings, rework, or outright failure. Although standards like UML and C4 model have guided software designs for years, stream processing has lacked its own visual framework—until now.

KSTD (Kafka Streams Topology Design) introduces an open standard and component library for describing and visualising Kafka Stream Topologies with Excalidraw. Simple design principles ensure teams can keep diagrams simple yet include important details, build trust in their designs, and streamline the development lifecycle.

You will learn how standardised diagrams support team alignment, and how KSTD fosters consistent and clear communication for Kafka Streams.

Design up-front, avoid mistakes, save time, and build trust.

Slides

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Recording

Watch session recording from Current London 2025

References

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