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Ajay Warrier

Stack overflow surveys every year since 2016 show  Rust as the #1 loved language. There is a reason for that. It is a language that is made for the future. It brings in lessons from every single programming language of the last 30-40 years and puts forward a new way of writing memory safe programs.

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Stack overflow surveys every year since 2016 show  Rust as the #1 loved language. There is a reason for that. It is a language that is made for the future. It brings in lessons from every single programming language of the last 30-40 years and puts forward a new way of writing memory safe programs.

Rust focuses on one thing, writing code that doesn't crash and is memory safe. It is a programmer's dream as it helps you write safe code. This course is for anyone and everyone looking to enter the world of Rust. You need to have zero programming experience to start learning with this course. You don't need any background in Computer Science as well. The lectures are made with Beginners in mind.

The goal of this course is not to teach you everything that is there in Rust. That will take forever. The goal is to make you someone who has a solid understanding of the foundations of Rust. With that you can go out and progress in the world of Rust on your own.

A wise man once said "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". That is the philosophy of this course.

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What's inside

Learning objectives

  • Master all the basics of rust programming
  • Fundamentals of programming
  • Develop problem solving ability
  • Practical understanding of fundamentals of rust

Syllabus

This section is all about introducing you to one of the hottest programming languages today in Computer Science, Rust.

An introduction to the programming language, Rust, and the contents of the course.

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In this lecture, we will talk about the prerequisites for this course.

In this lecture, we talk about the goal of this course and how we plan on learning Rust.

In this lecture, we will talk about the rust package manager, Cargo.

An introduction to the section that will talk about the goals to be achieved in this section. This section is mainly for people with no programming background.

Learn about code blocks and how to create code blocks in Rust.

Functions are blocks of code that have a name. In this lecture, we will talk about the basics of Functions.

Macros are functions that are pre-compiled, meaning they will execute faster. In this lecture, we will introduce the concept of macros.

In this lecture, we will break down and talk about the program that was generated for us by Cargo.

In this lecture, we will talk about the Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock files which are generated for us by Cargo.

In this lecture, we will talk about the target folder that is generated for us by Cargo.

In this lecture, we will talk about data types in programming languages.

In this lecture, we will talk about the correlation between variables and data types.

In this lecture we will make variables and then assign them data types of our choice.

In this lecture, I will show you two ways of using variables in your programs.

In this lecture, we will talk about two new concepts that are interrelated to variables and data types.

Booleans and Logical Operators are a pivotal part of programming. In this lecture, we will learn about them.

In this lecture, we will talk about the different flows of control in programming.

In this lecture, we will learn how to implement conditional flow of control in Rust.

In this lecture we will talk about initializing variables using conditional expressions.

In this lecture, we will talk about loops and how to write them.

In this lecture, we will talk about escaping infinite loops in an elegant way.

In this lecture, we go in-depth in understanding functions in Rust.

In this lecture, we talk about creating custom data types using structures.

In this lecture, we will talk about the Rust Standard library and using the String Module which is part of the Rust Standard Library.

In this lecture, we will use the rust standard library to read input from the user.

A quick tip on importing modules into your programs.

In this lecture, we will start the section by setting up our project and defining our project in simple steps.

In this lecture, we will work on reading the input from the user that is needed for our calculator to function.

In this lecture, we will actually perform the operations depending on user input.

In this lecture, we will fine-tune our application and work on improving the code.

A quick summary of our simple calculator application.

With this lecture, we start learning about one of the most important concepts in Rust programming, Ownership.

In this lecture, we talk about the static allocation of memory using Stack.

In this lecture, we will talk about scope and dynamic allocation using heap.

In this lecture, we start talking about the rules of ownership that help us manage memory in Rust.

In this lecture, we will talk about two advanced Memory Management techniques, Shallow copying, and Deep copying.

In this lecture, we will talk about ownership in context to functions.

In this lecture, we start talking about our very first data structure, Arrays.

In this lecture, we will learn about accessing members of an array using loops.

In this lecture, we talk more in-depth about arrays and using iterators to traverse through arrays in a much easier way.

In this lecture, we will learn about a new data structure called tuples.

In this lecture, we will learn about Vectors. Vectors are data structures like arrays that use heap.

In this lecture, we will talk about methods and discuss Structures in detail.

In this lecture, we will talk about Enumerations and how they can be used.

In this lecture, we will connect Enums with the Match Control flow statement to expose its true power.

In this lecture, we will talk about Unrecoverable errors in Rust.

In this lecture, we will talk about Recoverable Errors and how to handle them in Rust.

A look at another way of Error Handling in Rust.

A Story lecture on the concept of Some and None in Rust.

In this lecture we will talk about a Data Structure  called Hash Maps.

Please let me know if you want lectures on any specific topic and I will be happy to add those to this Course.

Traffic lights

Read about what's good
what should give you pause
and possible dealbreakers
Covers fundamental programming concepts like data types, variables, conditional statements, and loops, which are essential for building a strong foundation in Rust and other languages
Teaches memory management techniques like ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes, which are crucial for writing safe and efficient Rust code and are often challenging for beginners to grasp
Explores error handling techniques, including unrecoverable and recoverable errors, providing learners with the skills to write robust and reliable Rust applications that can gracefully handle unexpected situations
Uses Cargo, the Rust package manager, which is standard in the Rust ecosystem for managing dependencies, building projects, and running tests, making it easier for learners to get started with Rust development
Requires no prior programming experience, making it accessible to individuals with no background in computer science and providing a gentle introduction to the world of programming with Rust
Focuses on building a solid understanding of the foundations of Rust, enabling learners to progress independently and explore more advanced topics in the Rust ecosystem on their own

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Reviews summary

Rust fundamentals for beginners

According to students, this course serves as a solid introduction to the Rust programming language, specifically designed for beginners. Learners particularly highlight the clear explanations, finding complex topics like ownership and memory management well-covered despite their inherent difficulty. The practical project helps solidify understanding. While many found the pace appropriate for a quick start, a few caution that it moves very quickly and might be challenging for those with absolutely zero prior programming experience, suggesting some basic coding familiarity could be beneficial. Overall, it's seen as a strong foundation but students note you'll need to supplement it with additional resources and practice to achieve proficiency.
Provides basics, but requires further study.
"Need external resources to go further."
"As expected for 4 hours, it's not exhaustive, you'll need to practice a lot more and learn from other sources."
"It's definitely an introductory course, don't expect to be an expert afterwards."
"The goal is to make you someone who has a solid understanding of the foundations of Rust. With that you can go out and progress in the world of Rust on your own."
The project helps solidify concepts learned.
"The project section helped solidify understanding."
"Built a small calculator which was a fun exercise."
"The calculator project was useful."
"Covers the basics well. The project section helped solidify understanding."
Complex topics like ownership are explained clearly.
"The instructor explains complex concepts like ownership very clearly."
"The ownership section, often difficult, was explained simply."
"Explains the Rust way of thinking very well. The focus on memory safety and ownership right from the start is great."
"Covers the fundamentals, including ownership and borrowing basics."
Pace is too fast for some true beginners.
"The pace was a bit too fast for me as a complete beginner to programming."
"I struggled with this course. ...I felt like I needed prior programming knowledge to keep up."
"The instructor moved very quickly through important topics. Not for true beginners with zero experience."
"Might be better if you have some prior coding experience."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Rust for Beginners: Learn Rust in 4 Hours with these activities:
Review Basic Programming Concepts
Reinforce fundamental programming concepts like variables, data types, and control flow to build a solid foundation for learning Rust.
Browse courses on Variables
Show steps
  • Review notes or online resources covering basic programming concepts.
  • Complete practice exercises on variables, data types, and control flow.
  • Write simple programs using these concepts in any language you are familiar with.
Read 'The Rust Programming Language'
Supplement the course material with the official Rust book to gain a deeper understanding of the language's features and best practices.
Show steps
  • Read the first few chapters covering basic syntax and data types.
  • Experiment with the code examples provided in the book.
  • Refer to the book when encountering unfamiliar concepts in the course.
Read 'Programming Rust'
Expand your knowledge of Rust with a practical guide that covers advanced topics and real-world applications.
Show steps
  • Read chapters relevant to your interests or project goals.
  • Experiment with the code examples and try to modify them.
  • Use the book as a reference when working on your own Rust projects.
Four other activities
Expand to see all activities and additional details
Show all seven activities
Solve Rust Koans
Reinforce your understanding of Rust syntax and concepts by working through a set of Rust Koans, which are small exercises that test your knowledge.
Show steps
  • Find a set of Rust Koans online.
  • Work through the Koans one by one, filling in the missing code.
  • Consult the Rust documentation or online resources when stuck.
Build a Command-Line Tool
Apply your Rust knowledge by building a command-line tool that performs a specific task, such as a simple file converter or a data processing utility.
Show steps
  • Choose a simple command-line tool to build.
  • Plan the tool's functionality and input/output.
  • Implement the tool in Rust, focusing on error handling and memory safety.
  • Test the tool thoroughly with different inputs.
Write a Blog Post on Rust Ownership
Solidify your understanding of Rust's ownership system by writing a blog post explaining the concepts of borrowing, lifetimes, and move semantics.
Show steps
  • Research and review the concepts of ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes.
  • Outline the structure of your blog post.
  • Write clear and concise explanations with code examples.
  • Edit and proofread your blog post before publishing.
Contribute to a Rust Project
Gain practical experience and contribute to the Rust community by contributing to an open-source Rust project.
Show steps
  • Find an open-source Rust project that interests you.
  • Read the project's contribution guidelines.
  • Identify a small bug or feature to work on.
  • Submit a pull request with your changes.

Career center

Learners who complete Rust for Beginners: Learn Rust in 4 Hours will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Software Engineer
A Software Engineer designs, develops, and maintains software systems. This role requires a strong understanding of programming languages, and this course, which focuses on the fundamentals of Rust, provides a solid foundation in a modern language known for memory safety and performance. Rust's emphasis on preventing crashes and writing safe code aligns well with the responsibilities of a software engineer, who must ensure the stability and reliability of software. This course helps a new software engineer build a foundation in computer science and programming, including memory management, data structures and error handling.
Embedded Systems Engineer
An Embedded Systems Engineer develops software for devices like appliances, vehicles, and other hardware with specific computational needs. The focus on memory safety and performance in Rust, which is a language taught by this course, makes it particularly suited for embedded systems development where both are often crucial. The course's coverage of memory management techniques, and data structures helps build understanding of how programs interact with hardware, which is essential for any Embedded Systems Engineer. A learner also has the ability to learn the basics of programming, as well as error handling and other essentials for the field.
Systems Programmer
A Systems Programmer works on low level software components like operating systems, device drivers, and other core system software. Rust is a particularly good language for systems programming because of its focus on memory safety and performance. This course helps a Systems Programmer understand the foundations of Rust, and its approach to memory management. The course covers a range of topics from basic programming concepts to more advanced topics, including data structures and error handling which are essential to the position of Systems Programmer. Learning a language that prevents crashes and is memory safe is an important goal here.
Game Developer
A Game Developer creates video games for various platforms. This often involves working at a low level that requires understanding of memory management and performance. The principles of memory safety that are taught in this course are important to game development since games push the limits of hardware. The course takes you through the fundamentals of programming, and dives into data structures that are important to a game developer. Learning Rust can help a game developer write high performance games that are less prone to crashing. The focus on memory management using Rust makes the course useful to the role of Game Developer.
Blockchain Developer
A Blockchain Developer designs and implements the underlying technology for blockchain networks. Rust's emphasis on memory safety and high performance, which are taught in this course, make it an excellent choice for developing secure and efficient blockchain applications. Since blockchain demands security and high performance, learning Rust is increasingly useful for a career as a blockchain developer. This course helps a blockchain developer understanding programming fundamentals but also more advanced concepts like memory management, error handling and data structures.
Compiler Engineer
A Compiler Engineer designs and implements compilers, tools that transform source code into code that can be executed. Gaining a deep understanding of how programming languages work, as provided by this course, is useful in understanding the challenges of compiler design. This Rust course helps those wishing to work as a Compiler Engineer by building their foundation in computer science with a focus on a modern language, and advanced topics such as memory management, error handling, and data structures. Taking this course may be helpful to anyone looking to understand the foundations of languages like Rust, which is crucial for the role of Compiler Engineer.
Operating Systems Developer
An Operating Systems Developer creates the core software that manages computer hardware and software resources. This role deals with very low-level programming and requires a strong understanding of memory management and system performance. Rust is a very suitable language for operating system development due its capability for memory safety without sacrificing speed. This course may be helpful to a learner wishing to become an Operating Systems Developer because it provides a foundation in Rust, including its memory management features. This course also introduces data structures, error handling and other important concepts for this position.
Robotics Engineer
A Robotics Engineer designs and builds robots, which often involves programming embedded systems and real time control software, often in performance critical environments. Given Rust's capabilities for memory safety and performance, a course such as this may be helpful for those wishing to pursue this career. This course introduces foundational knowledge of Rust. Topics of the course, such as memory management, data structures and error handling are also especially useful for Robotics Engineers, as they work with low level hardware and software.
High-Performance Computing Engineer
A High Performance Computing Engineer works on software and systems that require maximum processing speed. This course, which teaches Rust, may be useful because Rust is a language known for its ability to create programs with high performance without sacrificing memory safety. This course may help a High Performance Computing Engineer understand the basics of programming and more complex topics such as memory management, error handling and data structures. Rust's design to ensure correct memory use helps make it useful in building high performance applications. Those who wish to optimize code and build high performance applications may find this course helpful.
Database Developer
A Database Developer designs and implements database systems and the software that interacts with them. The focus on memory safety and performance in the Rust programming language, as taught in this course, may be helpful for a database developer since modern databases need to be both reliable and efficient. This course builds a foundation in computer science and teaches fundamental concepts such as memory management, data structures, and error handling. All these are useful for database development and design. This course may be useful for those wishing to develop robust and high performance database software.
Software Developer
A software developer builds applications using programming languages like Rust. This course introduces the basics of the Rust programming language and is well-suited for someone looking to become a software developer. The course covers the fundamentals of programming, data structures, and error handling. These are the concepts that a software developer needs to understand to build complex applications. Taking this course may help those who wish to develop safe and performant code, and therefore, become a successful software developer. Although the course will not directly teach software architecture, it is a good place to begin.
Automation Engineer
An Automation Engineer designs and implements automated systems to improve efficiency. This often involves software development and programming, and this course may be useful in picking up the basics of programming. Rust is a language capable of creating high performance and memory safe software, and this is valuable when automating industrial processes. This course will help prospective Automation Engineers with the basics of programming, as well as more advanced topics such as memory management, data structures, and error handling. While a focus on a different set of programming skills is also important, this course may be helpful to those who wish to enter the field.
Quality Assurance Engineer
A Quality Assurance Engineer tests software to ensure it meets standards. While this role doesn't write code every day, understanding the foundations of programming taught in this course may be useful. A Quality Assurance Engineer may find this course helpful, because by learning the fundamentals of a language like Rust they will be able to better understand how software interacts with memory and other resources. This will ensure that software is robust. This course also teaches concepts such as data structures and error handling which may be useful in this position.
DevOps Engineer
A DevOps Engineer works to build and deploy software. While this position doesn't exclusively write code, understanding the fundamentals of programming can be useful. This course may be helpful, as it introduces the basics of programming in Rust, and helps build a foundation for thinking about software. The course also touches on memory management, data structures, and error handling. Learning how to write code and the concepts behind a language like Rust will improve critical thinking when it comes to DevOps and the automation that is part of that role.
Technical Writer
A Technical Writer creates documentation for software and hardware. While this role does not typically involve programming, a basic understanding of programming principles may be helpful. This Rust course may be useful for those interested in technical writing, as it introduces the fundamentals of programming. The course will help the technical writer understand basic programming concepts like data structures and error handling will help develop technical accuracy. Knowledge of what Rust is and how it works may be valuable in writing technical descriptions and documentation. Therefore this course may be useful.

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Rust for Beginners: Learn Rust in 4 Hours.
Is the official guide to Rust programming. It provides a comprehensive overview of the language, from basic syntax to advanced concepts like ownership and concurrency. It is highly recommended as a reference throughout the course and beyond. Many find it useful as a textbook for learning Rust.
Provides a practical, hands-on introduction to Rust, covering a wide range of topics from basic syntax to advanced concurrency and systems programming. It valuable resource for learning how to apply Rust to real-world problems. It is more valuable as additional reading than as a current reference.

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