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Module 8 · Caching, Queues, Async WorkDay 07620 min

Pub/Sub vs Queues

Multiple subscribers vs one consumer per message.

Day 076

Pub/Sub vs Queues

Publisher
service
Topic
queue
Queue A
queue
Queue B
queue
Sub A
service
Signal path
Pub/sub with per-subscriber queues
Publisher
service
flow
Topic
queue
Topic
queue
flow
Queue A
queue
Topic
queue
flow
Queue B
queue
Memory hook

Pub/Sub vs Queues: multiple subscribers vs one consumer per message

Mental model

absorb bursts before they become outages

Design lens

Pub/sub is fire-and-forget; you need durability per subscriber.

Recall anchors
QueuePub/sub

Why it matters

Queues deliver each message to one consumer (work distribution). Pub/sub delivers each message to all subscribers (broadcast). Many brokers support both shapes; pick by what the workflow actually needs.

Deep dive

Queue: tasks that must be processed exactly once across workers.

Pub/sub: events that many systems should react to independently.

Combine: pub/sub topic with queue per subscriber → reliable fan-out.

Demo / scenario

User signs up.

  1. Topic: 'UserCreated'.
  2. Subscribers: welcome-email, analytics, search-indexer.
  3. Each subscriber has own queue for retries.
  4. Failures isolated per subscriber.

Tradeoffs

  • Pub/sub is fire-and-forget; you need durability per subscriber.
  • Queues guarantee one consumer per message.
  • Mixing shapes adds operational surface.

Diagram

Publisher
Topic
Queue A
Queue B
Sub A
Sub B
Pub/sub with per-subscriber queues.

Mind map

Check yourself

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Sources & further reading