Which configuration controls how a consumer starts reading when there is no committed offset?

Which configuration controls how a consumer starts reading when there is no committed offset?

• A. auto.commit.interval.ms
• B. auto.offset.reset
• C. enable.auto.commit
• D. retry.backoff.ms

Answer: (B)

auto.offset.reset is the setting that decides where a consumer begins reading when there is no committed offset for a partition. If no offset exists yet, this option picks the starting point: earliest means start from the beginning of the partition (reprocess all available messages), while latest means start from the end (only new messages arriving after start). The other settings control how offsets are committed or how long to wait before retrying on failures; they don’t determine the initial read position when offsets are missing.

auto.offset.reset is the setting that decides where a consumer begins reading when there is no committed offset for a partition. If no offset exists yet, this option picks the starting point: earliest means start from the beginning of the partition (reprocess all available messages), while latest means start from the end (only new messages arriving after start). The other settings control how offsets are committed or how long to wait before retrying on failures; they don’t determine the initial read position when offsets are missing.