New Game: Message Queue Simulator

[bobbyonmagic]

Overview

Create an interactive simulator that visualizes how message queues work, comparing Kafka and RabbitMQ patterns, with focus on consumer groups, partitions, and delivery guarantees.

Features

Queue Visualization

• Producers — Applications sending messages
• Broker/Topic — Message storage with partitions
• Consumers — Consumer groups processing messages
• Dead Letter Queue — Failed message handling

Kafka vs RabbitMQ Comparison

• Kafka mode:
  • Partitioned topics with consumer group rebalancing
  • Log-based storage with offset tracking
  • At-least-once vs exactly-once semantics
• RabbitMQ mode:
  • Exchange types (direct, fanout, topic)
  • Queue bindings
  • Acknowledgment modes

Interactive Elements

• Produce messages and watch them flow
• Add/remove consumers and see rebalancing
• Simulate consumer lag
• Configure partitions and replication
• Trigger message processing failures

Educational Scenarios

• Normal operation — Messages produced and consumed
• Consumer lag — Slow consumer falling behind
• Rebalancing — Consumer joins/leaves group
• Message ordering — Show ordering guarantees per partition
• Dead letter handling — Poison pill messages
• Backpressure — Producer overwhelming consumers

Category

Backend / Infrastructure

Acceptance Criteria

• Visual message flow from producer to consumer
• Kafka and RabbitMQ modes
• Consumer group visualization
• Partition/queue visualization
• Dead letter queue handling
• At least 4 scenarios (lag, rebalancing, ordering, DLQ)
• Mobile-responsive design