Integration / Apache Kafka Interview questions
How do you list existing topics in a Kafka cluster?
The --list option on kafka-topics.sh returns every topic name in the cluster, which is usually the first command run when exploring an unfamiliar cluster:
kafka-topics.sh --list --bootstrap-server localhost:9092
The output is a plain list of topic names, including Kafka's own internal topics (like __consumer_offsets) unless filtered out. To see detail on a specific topic rather than just its name — partition count, replication factor, leader/ISR per partition — the follow-up command is --describe --topic <name>, which is typically the next step once --list has identified the topic of interest. The Admin API exposes the same functionality programmatically via AdminClient.listTopics() for applications that need to enumerate topics without shelling out to the CLI.
What command lists every topic name in a Kafka cluster?
What Admin API method provides the same functionality as --list, programmatically?
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