Learning Kafka the Easiest Way, Taught by a Kakao Interviewer

The limitations of LLMs? I’ll share practical solutions to real-world problems based on RAG trial and error and operational know-how from working in Silicon Valley.

You know about AI agent frameworks, but understanding how they work and applying them in practice can be difficult, right? Drawing on firsthand experience from Silicon Valley, we’ll guide you from the core principles to practical applications.

It was created to solve the "overwhelming problem of not knowing where or how to start with Kubernetes." Based on hands-on experience operating financial infrastructure, it is designed to help you understand the actual build and operation flow rather than just simple theory. Through a learning process that covers the relationship with Docker, YAML, Pods, Deployments, and Services, learners will master Kubernetes not just as a "concept," but as a "usable skill."

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 covers RPC communication techniques to maximize performance in large-scale MSA (Microservice Architecture) environments. Beyond simple gRPC practice, you will learn how to implement stable and efficient inter-service communication in real-world production environments where hundreds of microservices operate simultaneously. Based on Golang, the curriculum focuses on practical applications, including writing Protocol Buffers (proto) syntax, automated code generation and service implementation, the structure of gRPC and its advantages over traditional RPC, and performance optimization strategies. Designed to be easily understood even by non-majors or entry-level server developers, the course explains everything from the basic concepts of RPC to the internal workings of gRPC step-by-step, helping you build practical skills that can be applied immediately to real services.

This is a Redis course created with a current Kakao interviewer. It covers everything from data structure practice (String to Sorted Set) to Sentinel and Cluster configurations, helping you build design rationales that work in both interviews and real-world practice.

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

This course goes beyond simply teaching you how to use Docker as a tool; it approaches the subject from the perspective of solving the real-world dilemmas and problems encountered in professional practice. From unpredictable errors caused by differences between development and production environments, to configuration mistakes stemming from vague concepts of images and containers, and even the anxiety of "how much do I need to know to survive in the field"—this course explains it all based on firsthand experience operating financial infrastructure. Rather than just listing commands, it focuses on real-world cases: why certain structures are necessary, how to design images for easy maintenance, and how to handle containers for stable service operation. In particular, by prioritizing hands-on practice over theory, the course is designed to elevate students from simply "knowing how to use" Docker to "understanding it from an operational perspective" through visual comprehension and direct experience. This course provides practical standards and direction for those new to Docker, those who have used it but lack a clear conceptual grasp, and developers looking to take their infrastructure intuition to the next level.

Systematically learn the distributed NoSQL database Cassandra, from basic concepts to practical application. Develop high-volume data processing capabilities through practice-oriented theory and hands-on exercises, including data modeling, query optimization, and cluster configuration. Even without prior database experience, you can grow into a Cassandra expert based on the know-how of a current Silicon Valley developer.

When you find yourself constantly updating Swagger documentation, aligning API specs, and repeatedly communicating with the frontend, you start to wonder, "Why am I doing the same thing twice?" I also felt similar frustrations in my professional experience, which led me to use GraphQL extensively and develop an interest in data-centric design. This course goes beyond simple GraphQL syntax; it explores the real-world problems it was created to solve, along with practical considerations like Resolver structures, the N+1 problem, and Federation. I've structured this course to help you naturally learn how to reduce communication costs between developers and design more flexible API structures.

This course goes beyond basic CRUD-level database usage, helping you develop the PostgreSQL skills needed in the AI era from a practical, real-world perspective. Drawing on AI development experience in Silicon Valley, you’ll gradually learn how to design and use JSON, indexes, transactions, and pgvector in actual services, while gaining the skills to solve complex data structure and performance problems.

The biggest challenges in operating batch systems that process millions of records are performance degradation and the difficulty of recovery in the event of a failure. These issues cannot be solved with simple loops or poor design. Based on my experience of reliably processing large-scale data in real-world service environments, this course covers the structure and operating principles of Spring Batch and provides design methods to achieve both performance and stability. Moving beyond simple functional descriptions, this course will help you develop fundamental data processing problem-solving skills through batch architectures that can be applied immediately in practice.

This course is for developers who want to find fundamental solutions in environments where response times slow down as traffic increases, thread pools are quickly exhausted, and bottlenecks worsen with more external API calls. It helps you look at problems from the perspective of changing the architecture itself, rather than simply scaling out servers. Through this course, you will first understand the limitations of the traditional Spring MVC "Thread per Request" model. You will examine at the code level why throughput doesn't increase even when CPU resources are available, and exactly how blocking I/O occupies system resources. Next, you will learn the concepts and standard specifications of Reactive Streams and master how to handle data streams using Reactor's Mono and Flux. Beyond simple usage, you will learn through hands-on practice how data flows start, how they are consumed, and how throughput is controlled. In particular, you will directly implement design patterns that prevent OOM (Out of Memory) or overloads using Back Pressure. Additionally, you will understand the event loop-based processing structure of Spring WebFlux and conduct comparative exercises on how Non-Blocking I/O operates during actual request processing. By placing MVC and WebFlux side-by-side to verify their structural differences, you will also establish criteria for when to choose Reactive. This goes beyond simply "learning asynchrony." You will learn how to handle more requests with fewer threads, how to maintain a stable flow in environments with high external API dependencies, and develop the design intuition to secure throughput in high-concurrency environments.

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.

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 breaks down microservice architecture and distributed environments not as a mere list of technologies, but through the "design perspective" required in actual practice and interviews. Starting from the differences between Monolithic and MSA, it covers gradual migration strategies, Modular Monoliths, Clean Architecture, and Hexagonal Architecture step-by-step, clearly explaining why each choice is necessary and the resulting trade-offs. Furthermore, through hands-on practice, you can directly verify the intent of the structures and learn about core issues inevitably encountered in distributed environments—such as data consistency, transactions, inter-service communication, and fault tolerance—through realistic scenarios. Based on the actual questions and perspectives of a Kakao interviewer, this course aims to go beyond simple knowledge acquisition and elevate your very way of thinking about distributed systems to the next level.

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.

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.

Learn the process of building data pipelines using Apache Airflow, from the basics to practical application. Understand the core concepts and architecture of Airflow, and master advanced design patterns frequently used in the field—such as dynamic DAGs, parallel processing, distributed processing, and custom operators—through hands-on practice. Configure a practice environment using Python and Docker to develop the practical skills needed to design and operate real-world workflows.

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!

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.

Experience the power of Type Safe SQL with jOOQ!

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.

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.

The most definitive practical guide for developers who want to integrate AI into their Spring projects right away! Beyond simple LLM API calls, you will perfectly master building production-level AI environments that can be immediately applied to real business logic using RAG and MCP.

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!

Learn “Effective Java,” the ultimate Java learning course, more easily and completely. By taking this course, you can improve not only your Java programming knowledge and skills, but also your learning ability.

This course is a practical-focused learning program for JWT-based token authentication and security enhancement techniques that are essential in modern web service environments. Using Spring Boot 3, Spring Security 6, and React, you'll implement secure login systems and cover comprehensive security practices including XSS·CSRF countermeasures, HTTPS implementation, token reissuance and revocation strategies, and secure secret key management. Additionally, you'll practice real service-level environment configuration through AWS build·deployment and performance optimization using Redis, and the complete project source code provided in the course can be directly applied to real-world work.

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.

Java Programming Based on Object-Oriented Concepts for Computer Science Majors

Kotlin mastery via virtual payment server course.

Drawing from my own experience of feeling despondent when trying to implement practical code during my first MSA transition—despite knowing the theory—I will help you grow into a developer who guarantees perfect data consistency amidst any system failure by directly rolling back daunting compensation logic through 9-step practical patterns and AI Agent coding.

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.

This course will teach you how to use authentication, database, storage, and FCM provided by Google Firebase. In particular, FCM is a core service of Firebase used by most apps for server push.

Developing an 'Autonomous' Premium Reservation Agent Backend Using Spring AI + JPA + MySQL Beyond Chatbots to Agents: The Standard of Tool Calling and Prompt Engineering

What kinds of problems appear in coding tests these days? Solve “practical” problems yourself, reflecting the latest corporate coding test trends. We provide proven problems and solutions to effectively build your algorithm and problem-solving skills. (with Java)

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

This course is for those preparing for coding tests in Java. It covers the top 10 topics that are most frequently tested in coding tests. It is structured step by step from basic to intermediate problems linked to the topic, so if you follow it step by step, you will get good results.

This is a basic DFS lecture that explains the way a liberal arts major and working developer studied to get a job :) We have prepared a lecture where you can learn by solving problems yourself, with minimal boring theory lectures! After taking this lecture, you will be able to solve silver level DFS problems on your own according to Baekjoon standards.