title: Is Apache Kafka appropriate for use as an unordered task queue?
body: <p>Kafka splits incoming messages up into partitions, according to the partition assigned by the producer. Messages from partitions then get consumed by consumers in different consumer groups. </p>
  
  <p>This architecture makes me wary of using Kafka as a work/task queue, because I have to specify the partition at time of production, which indirectly limits which consumers can work on it because a partition is sent to only one consumer in a consumer group. I would rather not specify the partition ahead of time, so that whichever consumer is available to take that task can do so. Is there a way to structure partitions/producers in a Kafka architecture where tasks can be pulled by the next available consumer, without having to split up work ahead of time by choosing a partition when the work is produced?</p>
  
  <p>Using only one partition for this topic would put all the tasks in the same queue, but then the number of consumers is limited to 1 per consumer group, so each consumer would have to be in a different group. Then all of the task get distributed to each consumer group, though, which is not the kind of work queue I'm looking for.</p>
  
  <p>Is Apache Kafka appropriate for use as a task queue?</p>