Open navigation menu
← All Learning Paths

Rust Systems Programming

A rigorous learning path for Rust systems programming covering ownership, borrowing, lifetimes, traits, concurrency, unsafe code, and systems design for building safe and fast software.

technicaladvanced12 nodes120h total
  1. 1

    Rust Fundamentals

    Master Rust syntax, types, control flow, and functions

    Completion criteria: Build basic Rust programs demonstrating language fundamentals

    Next step: Learn ownership and borrowing

    ⏱ 8h

  2. 2

    Ownership and Borrowing

    Understand ownership, borrowing, and references in Rust

    Prerequisites: rs-01

    Completion criteria: Write Rust code that compiles with proper ownership rules

    Next step: Study lifetimes

    ⏱ 12h

  3. 3

    Lifetimes and References

    Master lifetime annotations and lifetime elision rules

    Prerequisites: rs-02

    Completion criteria: Write functions with explicit lifetime annotations

    Next step: Learn structs and enums

    ⏱ 10h

  4. 4

    Structs, Enums, and Pattern Matching

    Use structs, enums, and pattern matching effectively

    Prerequisites: rs-03

    Completion criteria: Build a data model using structs, enums, and pattern matching

    Next step: Study traits and generics

    ⏱ 10h

  5. 5

    Traits and Generics

    Master trait definitions, implementations, and generic programming

    Prerequisites: rs-04

    Completion criteria: Build a generic library with trait-based abstractions

    Next step: Learn error handling

    ⏱ 12h

  6. 6

    Error Handling

    Master Result, Option, and custom error types

    Prerequisites: rs-05

    Completion criteria: Build a robust error handling system with custom error types

    Next step: Study collections and iterators

    ⏱ 8h

  7. 7

    Collections and Iterators

    Use Rust collections and master iterator adaptors

    Prerequisites: rs-06

    Completion criteria: Process data efficiently using iterator chains

    Next step: Learn smart pointers

    ⏱ 8h

  8. 8

    Smart Pointers and Interior Mutability

    Master Box, Rc, RefCell, and interior mutability patterns

    Prerequisites: rs-07

    Completion criteria: Build data structures using smart pointers correctly

    Next step: Study concurrency

    ⏱ 10h

  9. 9

    Concurrency in Rust

    Use threads, channels, Mutex, and Arc for safe concurrency

    Prerequisites: rs-08

    Completion criteria: Build a concurrent application with safe shared state

    Next step: Learn async Rust

    ⏱ 12h

  10. 10

    Async Rust with Tokio

    Master async/await and the Tokio async runtime

    Prerequisites: rs-09

    Completion criteria: Build an async web server with Tokio

    Next step: Study unsafe Rust

    ⏱ 10h

  11. 11

    Unsafe Rust and FFI

    Understand unsafe code, raw pointers, and foreign function interface

    Prerequisites: rs-10

    Completion criteria: Write safe wrappers around unsafe code and FFI

    Next step: Build a capstone Rust project

    ⏱ 8h

  12. 12

    Capstone Rust Systems Project

    Build a systems-level application demonstrating Rust mastery

    Prerequisites: rs-11

    Completion criteria: Deliver a performant, safe Rust systems application

    Next step: Explore embedded Rust, WebAssembly, or systems tooling

    ⏱ 12h