# What is confluent serializer and deserializer?

**URL:** <https://forum.confluent.io/t/what-is-confluent-serializer-and-deserializer/6410>\
**Category:** Confluent Cloud\
**Created:** [1 November 2022 17:24 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/what-is-confluent-serializer-and-deserializer/6410 "2022-11-01T17:24:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MadhavPoosarla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@MadhavPoosarla](https://forum.confluent.io/u/MadhavPoosarla)\
**Post date:** [1 November 2022 17:24 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/what-is-confluent-serializer-and-deserializer/6410/1 "2022-11-01T17:24:11Z")

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Hi,

i am trying to understand the schema registry while going thru the documents… I found the terms serializer and deserializer… i am not able to understand what are these.  
can someone help me with some real-time examples?

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**Author:** ![mkananizadeh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@mkananizadeh](https://forum.confluent.io/u/mkananizadeh)\
**Post date:** [3 November 2022 22:00 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/what-is-confluent-serializer-and-deserializer/6410/2 "2022-11-03T22:00:18Z")

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Hi @MadhavPoosarla,

We recently added a new course to our [developer.confluent.io](http://developer.confluent.io) site that covers Schema Registry. You can watch it for free at [Key Concepts of a Schema Registry](https://developer.confluent.io/learn-kafka/schema-registry/key-concepts/).

Enjoy!

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**Author:** ![MadhavPoosarla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@MadhavPoosarla](https://forum.confluent.io/u/MadhavPoosarla)\
**Post date:** [8 November 2022 14:27 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/what-is-confluent-serializer-and-deserializer/6410/3 "2022-11-08T14:27:01Z")

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Thanks for your response, its helpful

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**Author:** ![OneCricketeer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.confluent.io/onecricketeer/32/1551_2.png) [@OneCricketeer](https://forum.confluent.io/u/OneCricketeer)\
**Post date:** [8 November 2022 22:56 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/what-is-confluent-serializer-and-deserializer/6410/4 "2022-11-08T22:56:10Z")

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Kafka stores bytes, only and always.

Your apps typically work with structured objects or primitives (strings, ints, etc).

You need a way to [serialize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialization) these.

Kafka comes with many [built in serialization classes](https://github.com/apache/kafka/tree/trunk/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/common/serialization). Confluent maintains their own, and you can also define custom ones, as you so choose.