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Hello devs, Kafka has emerged as one of the most popular distributed streaming platforms in recent years used by companies across various industries, particularly in Microservice architecture to facilitate asynchronous communication.

Whether you're a software engineer or a data analyst, understanding Kafka is becoming increasingly important for building scalable and robust distributed systems.

If you want to learn Kafka and looking for resources like books, online courses, and tutorials then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared best paid Kafka courses and in this article, I am going to share best free Kafka courses, so you can start building your skills and exploring the world of distributed streaming.

When it comes to learning Kafka, It's also one of the essential skills for Java developers and I have included in my list 22 tech skills for Java developers.

If you have already made up your mind and want to learn Apache Kafka in 2024 but looking for free resources to kick-start your Apache Kafka journey then don't worry. Earlier, I shared the best paid Apache Kafka courses.

In this article, I am going to share the best free Apache Kafka courses. I have included both general Kafka courses as well as Apache Kafka courses for Java developers because most of my experience is with using Apache Kafka in a Java application using Spring Boot.

By the way, if you can afford, Kafka fundamentals for Java developers course is a great course to start with. It's not free but quite affordable, and you can buy it for just $10 on Udemy sales.

Whether you're a beginner engineer or an experienced developer, these free courses offer a range of topics and difficulty levels that will allow you to learn and improve your Kafka skills.

So, let's get started and explore some of the best free Kafka courses available online.

6 Best Free Apache Kafka Courses for Beginners in 2024

Without wasting any more of your time, here is a list of the best free online courses to learn Apache Kafka in 2024. These free courses are created by experts and trusted by thousands of developers online. I have created these courses from popular online learning websites like Udemy and Coursera.

1. KAFKA Cluster deployment and Java SpringBoot [Free]

Another enriched info quality course on Udemy goes by 4.6 ratings. As the title suggest this course will target Consumer & producer APIs. Hence, making it an intermediate-level course.

Over 21000 students are learning from this program which is created by Arbi Elezi. Kafka utilizes the method of consumer groups to let several tasks differentiate the work of absorbing & producing. The groups can dynamically set the list of topics via Subscribe API. For a deeper understanding of the above concept, this course is an ace of a deck.

Whether your target is to create the two APIs or establish a connection between them, this program will teach you accordingly. By learning about the APIs in this course you might be able to solve a major segment of problems faced by companies in their APIs, which makes this course a valuable asset for industrial use.

Key highlights of this course:
You will learn how to develop Kafka consumers & producers using Spring Boot. It takes about an hour to go through this course. More emphasized on providing practical content.

As this course is an intermediate course, the requirements are:

Basic knowledge of Spring Boot & Apache Kafka.
This program is best suitable for Students working on some Kafka integrated projects, some developers who require to harness a specific skill or someone who wants to explore new skills.

Course link - Apache Kafka and Spring Boot (Consumer, Producer)

2. An Introduction to Confluent Schema Registry [Free Course]

This course is available on Udemy with the highest rating on the platform. With rapid advancements in technology, now, we are not only limited to organizing & analyzing symmetric data but also non-symmetric. As the no. of information resources grows, a dramatic surge in the no. of topologies has been observed.

So, for the seamless investigation stage, managing these topologies/schemas in real data is the need of time. To overcome the above situation, a platform that consists of Apache Kafka & schema registry becomes handy.

This beginner-level course is exactly going to teach you how to incorporate the required skills. Around 400 students are learning about incorporating schemas for better & efficient use of the Kafka environment.

Key highlights of this course:

You will have a better understanding of the Confluent Schema Registry.
Knowledge of Kafka architecture with or without topologies.
The additional benefit is that you will see a practical demo.
The lectures are short & completely quality information-packed.

Course link - An Introduction to Confluent Schema Registry

3. ETL and Data Pipelines with Shell, Airflow, and Kafka [Free Coursera course]

This training is offered by Coursera, another leading online learning portal. With a 4.8 rating on the platform & over 3k students enrolled in this course, it's one of the better free resource to learn things like Kafka and AirFlow. It is presented by IBM, the global leader in business transformation via cloud platforms & AI.

4 highly skilled tutors, who are working as data engineers by profession will guide you throughout your journey in this course. This course is for newbies as well as some working experts who want to polish their skills. The additional benefit of this program is that it can be applied to other specialization or certificate courses on this platform as well.

Key highlights of this course:

It will teach you about methods for transforming normal data into enterprise information. That includes ETL & ELT. ELT operations are used where an app transforms data on a user's request. Storage systems & multi-dimensional info requires ETL techniques.

Moreover, you will discover the procedures for pulling info conceptually or combing collected information & integrating data into a source.

By specifying modifications on input, makes it more trustworthy & contextualized to the consumers. How to construct ETL workflow with Shell scripting.

Course Link - ETL and Data Pipelines with Shell, Airflow, and Kafka

By the way, if you are interested in Coursera's professional certificate and specialization which gives you professional credential then you better join Coursera Plus as they are not free but Coursera Plus allows you to enroll into unlimited number of certificate for a cost of just $399 per year.

4. Setup Single Node Cloudera Cluster on Google Cloud- Deploy Cloudera Hadoop, Spark & Kafka Environment [Free Udemy Course]

This is one of the best intermediate or advanced level free courses you will ever discover on Udemy. This program, which has a 4.6 average rating on the site and approximately 4K students learning, concentrates on employing practical techniques to teach.

The lectures are around 1 hour and 30 minutes long, but every minute you spend in them will teach you something useful for your job or will allow you to study new topics of computer science.

This course is mostly comprised of practical information and demonstrations, so the learner will not become bored just by going over and over theory. Learning through virtual activities makes the process more interesting and meaningful.

Nowadays, the term "big data" is the most commonly used. You will be able to create your own big data engineering v-lab and work on it utilizing Kafka and other applications using this program.

Key highlights of this course
Create a big data science ecosystem & GCP using Kafka.
Discover how to make Cloudera certifications.

The minimum requirements are: Having a basic understanding of Linux, spark & Kafka will be appreciated. The targeted audience are people who want to leverage big data clusters & cloud models using Kafka.

Course Link - Setup Single Node Cloudera Cluster on Google Cloud

5. Kafka Tutorial - Spring Boot Microservices

If you are a JAva developer who wants to learn Apache KAfka so that you can use Kafka for asynchronous communication in your Spring Boot Microservices then this free YouTube Kafka course is great to start with.

This course is created by Nelson and its available on his YouTube channel Amigos code. In this Kafka Tutorial you will learn how to get up and running Kafka, Configure topics, Producers and Consumer. It uses Spring Boot and build a Restful API that will integrate with Kafka eco system.

⭐ Table Of Contents ⭐

00:00 - Intro
01:17 - Quick Word
02:19 - Kafka
10:22 - Kafka Broker
15:22 - Bootstrap Project
17:33 - Topic
20:38 - Producer Config
26:41 - Kafka Template
30:26 - Kafka Consumer
34:33 - Consumer Config
39:59 - @KafkaListener
44:03 - Restful API and Kafka
48:39 - Spring Kafka Documentation
49:53 - Outro

You can watch this course right here or on YouTube, here is the link:

6. Learn Apache Kafka for Beginners v2- Udemy [Paid Course]

Moving to the last course of the series, this one is a paid course but it is worth doing as it is filled with a good explanation of the topics and in terms of virtual projects. It is one of the top great starter programs in this domain, including over 100k learners.

To start your quest in this path, no previous information about Kafka is required. It provides a step-by-step exposure to every essential, as well as an overview of the Apache environment.

The instructor is Stephane Maarek, and AWS certified Cloud practitioner. According to him, Apache Kafka is highly sought-after expertise & there aren't enough candidates to fill the available roles. By learning this, you may increase your earnings or overcome new tasks.

What this course will teach you-

To establish your own Kafka programming ecosystem.
You will Master every concept such as topics, breakers, etc.
Create a produce-Consumer-based Twitter Elasticsearch.
Improve your knowledge of Log compaction.

Course Link- Learn Apache Kafka for Beginners v2

That's all about the best free Apache Kafka courses for Beginners and experienced developers to learn in 2024. Multi-tasking methodologies are introduced in present-day apps to boost production & cooperation among all departments of a company. Hence, the need for real-time problem-solving techniques is increasing in greater demand.

According to a study, it is believed that there is a no. vacancy unfilled in companies for persons with knowledge of Kafka. Thus, due to this lack of availability of K-developers, their demand is rising, which makes it a great skill to learn.

If you are also a Java developer then you may find my favorite Apache Kafka courses useful but even if you are not working in Java, you can check out these courses to learn Apache Kafka fundamentals. It's one of the leading messaging solutions and many developers outside the Java ecosystem are also using Apache Kafka.

Other Free Programming Resource articles you may like to explore

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find these best free Apache Kafka courses from Udemy and Coursera useful, please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions, feedback, or other fee courses to add to this list, please feel free to suggest.

P. S. - If you want to learn the Apache Kafka platform and need a hands-on, project-based resource then the Kafka fundamentals for Java developers course is a great course to start with. It's not free but quite affordable, and you can buy it for just $10 on Udemy sales. More than 8K Kafka developers have already benefitted from it.

My Favorite FREE Courses to Learn Apache Kafka in 2024