Learn to analyze logging architectures against regulatory requirements and budget constraints. You'll evaluate retention policies for audit logs versus operational events, map data classifications to storage tiers, and quantify the cost impact of different configuration choices. By working through cost modeling exercises and compliance gap analysis, you'll recommend concrete changes to log configurations that balance compliance mandates with infrastructure costs.

Learn to architect stream processing pipelines that transform and enrich data in real time. You'll design topologies that join multiple event streams (orders with payments), implement windowing for time-based aggregations (5-minute revenue totals), and manage stateful operations with exactly-once semantics. By working through concrete patterns like stream-stream joins and fan-out architectures, you'll build production-ready data flows that power operational dashboards and decision systems.

Learn to diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks in streaming pipelines while controlling costs. You'll analyze partition strategies against throughput requirements, evaluate replication factors versus latency SLAs, and implement compression and batching optimizations. Through cost modeling exercises and performance benchmarking, you'll balance throughput targets with infrastructure budgets and use monitoring data to make evidence-based recommendations for scaling streaming applications.