intermediateConsumer Timing Configurations

Why does increasing `max.poll.records` improve throughput but also increase the risk of rebalance-triggered reprocessing?

A higher `max.poll.records` means each `poll()` call returns more messages to process before the next `poll()`, improving batch efficiency — but processing a bigger batch also takes longer, increasing the odds of exceeding `max.poll.interval.ms` if the batch's total processing time isn't accounted for, which can trigger an unwanted rebalance mid-batch.

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