What serialization formats are commonly used with Kafka?

Common serialization formats: String (for simple text), JSON (human-readable, flexible, but verbose and no schema enforcement), Avro (compact binary, schema registry required, backward/forward compatible — most popular in enterprise), Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) (compact binary, strong typing, Google-developed), MessagePack (compact binary JSON alternative). Avro + Confluent Schema Registry is the de facto standard in production Kafka ecosystems due to schema evolution support and compact wire format.

Expected key concepts: String, JSON, Avro, Protocol Buffers, Protobuf, Schema Registry, binary, schema evolution, backward compatible, forward compatible