Apache Kafka® 3.5 is here with the capability of previewing migrations between ZooKeeper clusters to KRaft mode. Follow along as Danica Fine highlights key release updates. Kafka Core: KIP-833 provides an updated timeline for KRaft.KIP-866 now is preview and allows migration from an existing ZooKeeper cluster to KRaft mode.KIP-900 introduces a way to bootstrap the KRaft controllers with SCRAM credentials.KIP-903 prevents a data loss scenario by preventing replicas with stale broker epochs from joining the ISR list. KIP-915 streamlines the process of downgrading Kafka's transaction and group coordinators by introducing tagged fields. Kafka Connect: KIP-710 provides the option to use a REST API for internal server communication that can be enabled by setting `dedicated.mode.enable.internal.rest` equal to true. KIP-875 offers support for native offset management in Kafka Connect. Connect cluster administrators can now read offsets for both source and sink connectors. This KIP adds a new STOPPED state for connectors, enabling users to shut down connectors and maintain connector configurations without utilizing resources.KIP-894 makes `IncrementalAlterConfigs` API available for use in MirrorMaker 2 (MM2), adding a new use.incremental.alter.config configuration which takes values “requested,” “never,” and “required.”KIP-911 adds a new source tag for metrics generated by the `MirrorSourceConnector` to help monitor mirroring deployments. Kafka Streams: KIP-339 improves Kafka Streams' error-handling capabilities by addressing serialization errors that occur before message production and extending the interface for custom error handling. KIP-889 introduces versioned state stores in Kafka Streams for temporal join semantics in stream-to-table joins. KIP-904 simplifies table aggregation in Kafka by proposing a change in serialization format to enable one-step aggregation and reduce noise from events with old and new keys/values. KIP-914 modifies how versioned state stores are used in Kafka Streams. Versioned state stores may impact different DSL processors in varying ways, see the documentation for details. Kafka Client: KIP-881 is now complete and introduces new client-side assignor logic for rack-aware consumer balancing for Kafka Consumers. KIP-887 adds the `EnvVarConfigProvider` implementation to Kafka so custom configurations stored in environment variables can be injected into the system by providing the map returned by `System.getEnv()`.KIP 641 introduces the `RecordReader` interface to Kafka's clients module, replacing the deprecated MessageReader Scala trait.  EPISODE LINKS See release notes for Apache Kafka 3.5Read the blog to learn moreDownload and get started with Apache Kafka 3.5Watch the video version of this podcast