Which setting defines the maximum data returned by the broker per partition?

• A. max.poll.records
• B. fetch.max.bytes
• C. max.partition.fetch.bytes
• D. fetch.min.bytes

Answer: (C)

Kafka uses a per-partition fetch limit to control how much data is returned from each partition in a single fetch. The setting max.partition.fetch.bytes defines this maximum amount of data per partition, ensuring that no single partition can overwhelm the fetch response even when multiple partitions are being read. At the same time, the total data in one fetch is limited by fetch.max.bytes, which applies across all partitions in the response. So the per-partition cap is the reason this setting is the best answer for defining the maximum data returned by the broker per partition. Other options control different aspects: max.poll.records limits how many records are returned per poll, fetch.max.bytes caps the overall fetch size across partitions, and fetch.min.bytes governs how much data the broker should accumulate before replying.