183-observability-tracing-opentelemetry
Java Distributed Tracing with OpenTelemetry
Implement robust distributed tracing in Java with OpenTelemetry by modeling meaningful spans, preserving context propagation, and instrumenting critical business and infrastructure paths with low-overhead, privacy-safe telemetry.
What is covered in this Skill?
- OpenTelemetry tracing fundamentals for Java services
- Span design: boundaries, parent/child relationships, and operation naming
- Context propagation across HTTP, messaging, async tasks, and thread boundaries
- Semantic conventions and stable attribute naming
- Error/status/event recording best practices
- Sampling strategy and performance/cost trade-offs
- Privacy and security controls for trace attributes
- Testing and verification of trace propagation and span correctness
Scope: Distributed tracing quality in application and integration layers, focused on diagnosability, consistency, and operational safety.
Constraints
Tracing instrumentation must preserve context correctly and avoid leaking sensitive data. Over-instrumentation and high-cardinality attributes can harm cost and signal quality.
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