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The sticky partitioner attempts to create this behavior in the partitioner. By “sticking” to a partition until the batch is full (or is sent when linger.ms is up), we can create larger batches and reduce latency in the system compared to the default partitioner. Even in the case where linger.ms is 0 and we send right away, we see improved batching and a decrease in latency. After sending a batch, the partition that is sticky changes. Over time, the records should be spread out evenly among all the partitions.

Netflix had a similar idea and created a sticky partitioner that selects a partition and sends all records to it for a given period of time before switching to a new partition.

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