Grab the example setup for MySQL from the tutorial. Set  sql-mode= in MySQL configuration. Add "column.truncate.to.65536.chars": "^\\w+. w+.w+" to the connector configuration. Log in to the MySQL database. Create a new DATE NOT NULL column in a table with existing data: alter table customers add column date_c date not null Update an existing record: update customers set first_name='N' where id=1001 See the connector fail: connect_1 | Caused by: org.apache.kafka.connect.errors.DataException: Invalid value: null used for required field: "date_c", schema type: INT32 connect_1 | at org.apache.kafka.connect.data.ConnectSchema.validateValue(ConnectSchema.java:220) connect_1 | at org.apache.kafka.connect.data.Struct.validate(Struct.java:233) connect_1 | at org.apache.kafka.connect.data.ConnectSchema.validateValue(ConnectSchema.java:253) connect_1 | at org.apache.kafka.connect.data.Struct.put(Struct.java:216) connect_1 | at org.apache.kafka.connect.data.Struct.put(Struct.java:203) connect_1 | at io.debezium.data.Envelope.update(Envelope.java:313) connect_1 | at io.debezium.connector.mysql.RecordMakers$1.update(RecordMakers.java:314) connect_1 | at io.debezium.connector.mysql.RecordMakers$RecordsForTable.update(RecordMakers.java:512) connect_1 | at io.debezium.connector.mysql.BinlogReader.handleUpdate(BinlogReader.java:992) connect_1 | at io.debezium.connector.mysql.BinlogReader.handleEvent(BinlogReader.java:587) connect_1 | ... 5 more   What happens under the hood is: When a new DATE NOT NULL column is added, MySQL will populate it with zero dates on the existing rows: mysql> select * from customers; +------+------------+-----------+-----------------------+------------+ | id | first_name | last_name | email | date_c | +------+------------+-----------+-----------------------+------------+ | 1001 | M | Thomas | sally.thomas@acme.com | 0000-00-00 | | 1002 | George | Bailey | gbailey@foobar.com | 0000-00-00 | | 1003 | Edward | Walker | ed@walker.com | 0000-00-00 | | 1004 | Anne | Kretchmar | annek@noanswer.org | 0000-00-00 | +------+------------+-----------+-----------------------+------------+ 4 rows in set (0.01 sec) When reading an empty date from the binlog, the connector will represent it as NULL and emit a warning: if (year == 0 || month == 0 || day == 0) { LOGGER.warn( "Invalid value '{}' stored in column '{}' of table '{}' converted to empty value" , dateString, column.name(), table.id()); return null ; } NULL doesn't fit the schema where this field is required.