Compatibility of api (for .NET) confluent kafka ver. 2.0.2

Clients Non-Java Clients
1

Since 2023, I have been using the Confluent Kafka API (for .NET) v. 2.0.2 in a client program I developed in C# . Here you are the web link of Confluent Kafka API (for .NET) v. 2.0.2 :
Release 2.0.2 · confluentinc/confluent-kafka-dotnet · GitHub

Previously, the program connected to an Apache Kafka server version 3.6.0 (configured with 1 node, 1 broker, and authentication via SASL_PLAINTEXT with a single user).

Recently, I installed a new Apache Kafka server (v. 4.0.0) on another machine, configured in KRaft mode but with the same characteristics (1 node, 1 broker, and authentication via SASL_PLAINTEXT using the same user).

On the client side (using Kadeck), I tested the new Apache Kafka server, and it works perfectly: it performs just as well as before. I only needed to update the IP address of the Kafka server in the configuration, without making any other changes.

I am looking for official documentation that illustrates the compatibility of the Confluent Kafka API (for .NET) v. 2.0.2 with different versions of Apache Kafka.

Could you assist me or provide suggestions? In the future, I plan to test my client program (which uses the Confluent Kafka API v. 2.0.2) with the new Kafka server. However, I would also appreciate an official document (available online) that details the compatibility mentioned above.

Fabrizio

2

In general you won’t hit any issue with this – Kafka clients have had bidirectional compatibility for some time (started with Java in KIP-97), meaning clients can be older or newer than brokers. Some nuance comes into play though in terms of supported KIPs. To see what is supported in confluent-kafka-dotnet 2.0.2:

  1. Look at release notes to see the librdkafka version (also 2.0.2).
  2. Look at the librdkafka 2.0.2 compatibility documentation here