Learning Kafka the Easiest Way, Taught by a Kakao Interviewer

Learn the process of building essential Observability in a Microservices Architecture (MSA) environment from basics to practical application. Master standardized data collection using OpenTelemetry, trace storage and search through Grafana Tempo, and visualization using TraceQL through step-by-step hands-on practice. You can learn how to track service flows through distributed tracing, identify bottlenecks, and analyze the root causes of failures.

This course was created to solve a common problem many people face while preparing for developer jobs: "I studied CS and data structures, but I get tongue-tied during interviews." While conducting actual interviews at companies like Naver, Kakao, and Toss, I noticed that most candidates have memorized concepts but cannot explain why those concepts are necessary or how they are applied in real-world situations. Rather than simple rote memorization, this course teaches you how to understand the interviewer's intent and provide more persuasive answers to the same questions. Whether it's the OSI 7 layers, data structures, or coding tests, we focus on why you need to know them, when they are used, and how to speak about them to receive a positive evaluation in an interview. This course is for those who want to become developers who can explain what they understand in their own words, rather than just giving the same answers as everyone else.

Most developers are still stuck on Batch and CronJobs when it comes to data processing. However, in real-world production environments, data is generated continuously, and failing to process that flow immediately leads to latency, bottlenecks, and consistency issues. Having personally dealt with real-time recommendations, state synchronization, and event delay problems in high-traffic environments, I’ve often asked myself, "Is batch processing really the right approach for this?" This course begins with that very question. It explores how to use Apache Flink to perform computations the moment data flows, manage state securely, and produce accurate results based on Event Time—all from a practical perspective. Beyond simple theoretical explanations, you will experience how real-time stream processing systems are designed and operated through actual source code and architectures. For those who found real-time processing vague or were curious about the world beyond messaging, this course will provide a clear sense of direction.

How will you handle exploding traffic? Learn how to build resilient and flexibly scalable architectures through practical EDA (Event-Driven Architecture) design patterns using Kafka, Spring, CDC, and Temporal. A Kakao developer shares real-world experience with clear, easy-to-follow explanations that even non-majors can understand. A practice-oriented course covering everything from real-time data flow and event processing to microservice integration!

You may have felt frustrated using Redis without being able to explain why it should be designed that way or why certain patterns emerged. Through my experience in both practical development and as an interviewer, I have treated Redis not just as a simple cache, but as a core component that determines service stability and scalability. This course is not about memorizing commands; instead, I will share my experiences on which structures to choose in real traffic environments and their trade-offs, helping you establish the criteria to explain these concepts confidently in both interviews and practical work.

Learn how to design and handle large-scale data architectures that process hundreds of billions of records using only pure SQL and core MySQL features, alongside a Toss developer who handles hundreds of billions of financial traffic transactions and a developer who started as a non-major and is now developing platforms in Pangyo.

Develop a scalable real-time WebSocket chat server capable of handling high traffic by building a 3-instance cluster with Spring Boot 3.x and Kotlin, utilizing Redis Pub/Sub for distributed messaging and Nginx as a load balancer.

This course covers RPC communication techniques that maximize performance in large-scale MSA (Microservice Architecture) environments. Going beyond simple gRPC practice, you'll learn how to implement stable and efficient inter-service communication in real production environments where hundreds of microservices operate simultaneously. Based on Golang, the course covers Protocol Buffers (proto) syntax writing, automatic code generation and service implementation, gRPC structure and advantages over existing RPC, and performance optimization strategies with a practical focus. To ensure easy understanding for non-majors and server development beginners, the course provides step-by-step explanations from RPC concepts to gRPC's internal operating principles, enabling you to develop practical skills that can be immediately applied to real services.

Learn the SAGA transaction management technique for maintaining data consistency in distributed environments through a hands-on approach. You will configure three microservices using Spring Boot and Docker, and implement both Orchestration and Choreography patterns using Kafka and MySQL. Through this course, you will master core concepts applicable to real-world scenarios, including the operational principles of distributed transactions, designing compensating transactions, and handling fault recovery.

Kotlin mastery via virtual payment server course.

This course is a master class that teaches Kotlin's 🌺 Coroutine, covering everything from theoretical foundations to practical application in a standard manner. It systematically covers core principles and structure, the necessity of asynchronous programming, Coroutine builders and scopes, exception handling, channels, Flow, and other key features frequently used in practice, step by step. Each concept is explained with hands-on examples, making it easy for beginners to understand and immediately apply them. This is the best introductory and practical course for developers who want to build strong Coroutine skills for real-world use.

This course covers how to set up multi-module projects from scratch using Kotlin and Spring Boot. It proceeds with a hands-on approach, covering everything from the basic concepts of modularization to Gradle configuration, managing dependencies between modules, and actual application development. If you are a beginner or intermediate developer looking to learn the fundamentals and practical application of multi-modules, please refer to this course.

At some point in backend development, you start to have these concerns. It's that moment when services expand and traffic increases, and you begin to feel the limitations of simple REST communication and CRUD structures. I experienced these same issues in the field and went through much trial and error balancing performance and structural complexity. The solution I chose during that process was NATS. Its simple configuration based on a single binary, ultra-low latency performance in microseconds, and the fact that it provides essential features—from Pub/Sub to Queue Groups and JetStream—without being overkill made it a very practical choice for real-world service environments. This course is not just a list of NATS features. Based on the problems I faced in practice, I explain through code and workflows why I chose NATS in certain situations and how I designed the architecture. This course is designed to help everyone—from those new to messaging systems to backend developers preparing for employment and senior developers considering better architectures—understand distributed systems and grow to the next level.

This course explores microservice architecture and distributed environments not as a simple list of technologies, but from a 'design perspective' required in actual work and interviews. Starting from the differences between monolithic and MSA, it progressively covers incremental migration strategies, modular monoliths, clean architecture and hexagonal architecture, clearly explaining why each choice is necessary and the trade-offs involved. Through hands-on practice, you can directly verify the intent of the structure and learn about core issues inevitably encountered in distributed environments—such as data consistency, transactions, inter-service communication, and failure handling—through realistic scenarios. Based on actual questions and perspectives from Kakao interviewers, this course aims to go beyond simple knowledge acquisition and elevate your way of thinking about distributed systems to the next level.

Learn the process of building data pipelines using Apache Airflow from basics to practical application. Understand Airflow's core concepts and architecture, and master advanced design patterns frequently used in practice such as dynamic DAGs, parallel processing, distributed processing, and Custom Operators through hands-on exercises. Set up a practice environment with Python and Docker, and develop practical skills to design and operate real workflows.

You can learn how to send emails using AWS and Spring. Through this, you can study how to create an email verification system.

This course focuses on solving the problem of getting stuck in interviews and practical work due to a lack of understanding of why certain structures and configurations are necessary, rather than just teaching how to configure NGINX. Based on experience evaluating numerous candidates as an interviewer for companies like Naver, Kakao, and Toss, I explain how to describe and utilize NGINX from the perspectives of performance, scalability, and operations through hands-on practice. The core of this course is to help you develop a mindset capable of tracing traffic flow and troubleshooting problems, rather than just memorizing configuration values.

This course provides a step-by-step learning path, ranging from the fundamental usage of MySQL to advanced techniques required in real-world production environments. It covers a wide range of topics, including data modeling techniques based on various case studies and practical data, evaluating the effectiveness of Foreign Key designs, analyzing Google Calendar schema DDL, and modern DDL design principles. Through this course, you will gain an in-depth understanding of how to utilize MySQL as a core system component rather than just a simple database.

This course is a master class that systematically covers the fundamental principles and practical applications of MongoDB. Starting with core MongoDB concepts, you will systematically learn essential topics for practical work, such as database design, CRUD operations, indexing, aggregation pipelines, performance optimization, transactions, and security. It explains topics step-by-step so even beginners can understand, and you can deeply learn the working principles of MongoDB through exercises and examples. This is the best introductory and practical course for developers who want to build strong MongoDB skills for practical work.

Let's build a project using Ktor, the most popular project in Kotlin, and master Kotlin! 😆

Learn the SAGA transaction management technique for maintaining data consistency in distributed environments through a hands-on approach. You will configure three microservices using Spring Boot and Docker, and implement both Orchestration and Choreography patterns using Kafka and MySQL. Through this course, you will master core concepts applicable to real-world scenarios, including the operational principles of distributed transactions, designing compensating transactions, and handling fault recovery.

How will you handle exploding traffic? Learn how to build resilient and flexibly scalable architectures through practical EDA (Event-Driven Architecture) design patterns using Kafka, Spring, CDC, and Temporal. A Kakao developer shares real-world experience with clear, easy-to-follow explanations that even non-majors can understand. A practice-oriented course covering everything from real-time data flow and event processing to microservice integration!

Let's build a project using Ktor, the most popular project in Kotlin, and master Kotlin! 😆

Starting with java.io, you can learn how to develop high-performance input/output systems based on NIO and NIO.2. Most importantly, the moment you master file I/O, we'll enable you to master high-performance server development as a bonus!

From the basics of Java to its applications, learn with star instructor Young Codi Kim, who makes it easy for non-majors and coding beginners to understand, and the backend development series that you learn through practice.

Building your own emotional diary service with Spring AI + React It's time for our 4th project with Neo + Essential!

Channel Talk interviewers will directly analyze the difference between failing and passing answers to the same question and help you prepare for actual follow-up questions.

Experience the power of Type Safe SQL with jOOQ!

Kotlin mastery via virtual payment server course.

Learn the basic, essential, and practical knowledge of Kafka that software developers need to know. We will integrate Kafka using Spring Boot and conduct hands-on exercises for sending and receiving messages tailored to various real-world scenarios.

Are you lost while learning web development? I'll help you find your own way. Even if you're not from a computer science background, you can understand how web service architecture works through a short 1-hour lecture.

Learn Springboot + Flutter RestAPI Board Creation Faster Than Anyone Develop a CRUD server with Springboot and create your own board with Flutter!!

A practical course on easily building a super simple bulletin board with Spring Boot and React.js! This course focuses less on theory and more on hands-on practice, covering the web application development process for quick completion.

With the price of a chicken combo, you'll learn the deployment process in order: Spring Boot manual deployment -> Docker deployment -> Github Action CI/CD!

I have created an 'Introduction to Elasticsearch' course that is easy for non-majors to understand and can be applied immediately in practice!

Spring AI + JPA + MySQL Premium Reservation Agent Backend Development with 'Autonomous Behavior' Beyond Chatbots to Agents: The Definitive Guide to Tool Calling and Prompt Engineering

Learn Springboot + NextJS RestAPI Board Creation Faster Than Anyone! Develop a CRUD server with Springboot and create your own board with NextJS!

<Code Squad Playground> is a preparatory step for taking the Masters Course White Level. This course is for those who have never experienced coding. Rather than learning theories based on the existing theory, you will learn theories while creating something. Even if you do not take the Masters Course White Level, those who are starting to learn Java programming are encouraged to try it.

This course includes both server (Java+Springboot) and front-end (React, ReactNative, Flutter, Android, iOS) development. Experience building a full-stack bulletin board with this course.

This is a lecture for people who are starting development for the first time. It's about programming thinking, which should come before development languages or UI frameworks.