If there is a Kafka server "over there" somewhere across the network I would assume that there might be two ways that a Consumer could consume the messages:
By first of all 'subscribing' to the Topic and in effect telling the Kafka server where it is listening so that when a new message is Produced, Kafka proactively sends the message to the Consumer, across the network.
The Consumer has to poll the Kafka server asking for any new messages, using the offset of the messages it has currently taken.
Is this how Kafka works, and is the option configurable for which one to use?