🦀 Rust Programming Fundamentals

Master Mozilla's systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency

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Rust Programming Curriculum

18
Rust Units
~140
Core Concepts
Rust 1.74
Latest Stable
Memory Safe
Zero Cost
1

Rust Introduction

Learn the fundamentals of Rust and its design philosophy.

  • What is Rust?
  • Rust's design goals
  • Memory safety without GC
  • Zero-cost abstractions
  • Systems programming focus
  • Installation and setup
  • Cargo package manager
  • First Rust program
2

Basic Syntax & Types

Master Rust's fundamental syntax and type system.

  • Variable declarations
  • Mutability and immutability
  • Scalar types
  • Compound types
  • Type annotations
  • Constants and statics
  • Shadowing
  • Comments and documentation
3

Ownership System

Understand Rust's unique ownership model for memory safety.

  • Ownership rules
  • Move semantics
  • Stack vs heap
  • Drop trait
  • Clone and copy
  • References and borrowing
  • Mutable references
  • Dangling references
4

Functions & Control Flow

Create functions and control program execution flow.

  • Function definitions
  • Parameters and arguments
  • Return values
  • Statements vs expressions
  • if expressions
  • loop, while, for
  • Breaking and continuing
  • Loop labels
5

Data Structures

Work with structs, enums, and other data structures.

  • Struct definitions
  • Struct instantiation
  • Tuple structs
  • Unit-like structs
  • Enums and variants
  • Option and Result types
  • Method syntax
  • Associated functions
6

Pattern Matching

Master Rust's powerful pattern matching with match expressions.

  • match expressions
  • Pattern syntax
  • Matching literals
  • Matching named variables
  • Multiple patterns
  • Ranges and guards
  • Destructuring
  • Exhaustiveness
7

Collections

Work with Rust's built-in collection types.

  • Vectors (Vec<T>)
  • Strings and string slices
  • Hash maps
  • Iterating collections
  • Collection methods
  • Capacity vs length
  • UTF-8 and strings
  • String manipulation
8

Error Handling

Handle errors gracefully with Result and panic strategies.

  • Unrecoverable errors (panic!)
  • Recoverable errors (Result<T, E>)
  • Propagating errors (?)
  • Custom error types
  • Error handling patterns
  • unwrap and expect
  • Error trait
  • Best practices
9

Generics

Create flexible and reusable code with generic types.

  • Generic functions
  • Generic structs
  • Generic enums
  • Generic methods
  • Type parameters
  • Monomorphization
  • Performance implications
  • Generic constraints
10

Traits

Define shared behavior with traits and trait objects.

  • Defining traits
  • Implementing traits
  • Default implementations
  • Trait bounds
  • Multiple trait bounds
  • where clauses
  • Trait objects
  • Associated types
11

Lifetimes

Understand lifetime annotations and the borrow checker.

  • Lifetime concept
  • Borrow checker
  • Lifetime annotations
  • Lifetime parameters
  • Lifetime elision
  • Static lifetime
  • Lifetime bounds
  • Complex scenarios
12

Modules & Packages

Organize code with Rust's module system and Cargo.

  • Modules and mod keyword
  • File system organization
  • pub visibility
  • use declarations
  • Crates and packages
  • Cargo workspace
  • Dependencies
  • Publishing crates
13

Iterators & Closures

Process data efficiently with iterators and closures.

  • Closure syntax
  • Capturing environment
  • Fn traits
  • Iterator trait
  • Lazy evaluation
  • Iterator adaptors
  • collect and consume
  • Performance considerations
14

Smart Pointers

Work with smart pointers for complex memory scenarios.

  • Box<T> for heap allocation
  • Rc<T> reference counting
  • RefCell<T> interior mutability
  • Weak<T> references
  • Memory leaks and cycles
  • Deref trait
  • Drop trait
  • Custom smart pointers
15

Concurrency

Write safe concurrent code with threads and message passing.

  • Threads and spawn
  • Moving data between threads
  • Message passing channels
  • Shared state concurrency
  • Mutex and Arc
  • Send and Sync traits
  • Thread safety
  • Async programming basics
16

Advanced Features

Explore advanced Rust features and unsafe code.

  • Unsafe Rust
  • Raw pointers
  • Calling unsafe functions
  • Foreign Function Interface
  • Advanced traits
  • Associated types
  • Higher-ranked trait bounds
  • Procedural macros
17

Testing & Documentation

Test Rust code and write comprehensive documentation.

  • Unit tests
  • Integration tests
  • Test organization
  • cargo test
  • Documentation comments
  • Documentation tests
  • cargo doc
  • Benchmarking
18

Production & Ecosystem

Deploy Rust applications and explore the ecosystem.

  • Building for release
  • Cross-compilation
  • Performance optimization
  • Popular crates
  • Web development (Actix, Warp)
  • System programming
  • CLI applications
  • Deployment strategies

Unit 1: Rust Introduction

Learn the fundamentals of Rust and its design philosophy

What is Rust?

Rust is a systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency.

Key Features: Memory safety, Zero-cost abstractions, Thread safety, Performance

Rust Architecture

Understanding Rust's compilation model and memory management.

Rust Source Code (.rs)
rustc Compiler
Native Binary

Development Environment

Setting up your Rust development environment with rustup.

Install rustup from rustup.rs
Cargo package manager
VS Code rust-analyzer extension

First Rust Program

Write and compile your first Rust application.

fn main() { println!("Hello, Rust!"); }
Click 'Compile & Run' to see output

Unit 2: Basic Syntax & Types

Master Rust's fundamental syntax and type system

Variables and Mutability

Understanding immutability by default and explicit mutability.

let x = 5; // immutable let mut y = 5; // mutable y = 6; // OK

Data Types

Rust's scalar and compound data types.

i32 u64 f64 bool char str array tuple

Type Annotations

Explicit type annotations when inference isn't enough.

Rust has strong static typing with excellent type inference

Shadowing

Redefining variables with the same name in the same scope.

Shadowing allows changing type while reusing variable names

Unit 3: Ownership System

Understand Rust's unique ownership model for memory safety

Ownership Rules

The three fundamental rules of Rust ownership.

1. Each value has a single owner
2. Only one owner at a time
3. Value is dropped when owner goes out of scope

Move Semantics

Understanding how ownership transfers between variables.

Click to see ownership in action

References and Borrowing

Using references to access data without taking ownership.

Owned Value
Borrowed Reference (&)

Mutable References

Borrowing data mutably with restrictions for safety.

Only one mutable reference OR multiple immutable references at a time

Unit 4: Functions & Control Flow

Create functions and control program execution flow

Unit 5: Data Structures

Work with structs, enums, and other data structures

Unit 6: Pattern Matching

Master Rust's powerful pattern matching with match expressions

Unit 7: Collections

Work with Rust's built-in collection types

Unit 8: Error Handling

Handle errors gracefully with Result and panic strategies

Unit 9: Generics

Create flexible and reusable code with generic types

Unit 10: Traits

Define shared behavior with traits and trait objects

Unit 11: Lifetimes

Understand lifetime annotations and the borrow checker

Unit 12: Modules & Packages

Organize code with Rust's module system and Cargo

Unit 13: Iterators & Closures

Process data efficiently with iterators and closures

Unit 14: Smart Pointers

Work with smart pointers for complex memory scenarios

Unit 15: Concurrency

Write safe concurrent code with threads and message passing

Unit 16: Advanced Features

Explore advanced Rust features and unsafe code

Unit 17: Testing & Documentation

Test Rust code and write comprehensive documentation

Unit 18: Production & Ecosystem

Deploy Rust applications and explore the ecosystem

Release Optimization

Building optimized binaries for production deployment.

# Cargo.toml [profile.release] opt-level = 3 lto = true codegen-units = 1

Cross-compilation

Building for different target platforms and architectures.

Rust makes cross-compilation straightforward with target triples

Popular Crates

Essential crates for common development tasks.

serde
Serialization framework
tokio
Async runtime
clap
CLI argument parsing
reqwest
HTTP client

Application Domains

Areas where Rust excels in production environments.

Systems programming, web backends, CLI tools, blockchain, game engines