I continue to be interested in learning Rust, the programming language that’s gaining ascendancy in the systems programming world.  I reviewed The Rust Programming Language which is not a bad book but I didn’t care for it, for reasons I outlined in a previous post.

Since then, I’ve moved on to Rust Exercises, which a very cool course you can take for free.  Through 100 exercises, you learn Rust step by step.

Go through “100 Exercises to Learn Rust”. It will teach you Rust’s core concepts, one exercise at a time. You’ll learn about Rust’s syntax, its type system, its standard library, and its ecosystem.

The course doesn’t assume any prior knowledge of Rust, but it assumes you know at least another programming language. It also doesn’t assume any prior knowledge of systems programming or memory management. Those topics will be covered in the course.

In other words, you’ll be starting from scratch! You’ll build up your Rust knowledge in small, manageable steps. By the end of the course, you will have solved ~100 exercises, enough to feel comfortable working on small to medium-sized Rust projects.

The way it works is that you read a chapter and then do an exercise to write code based on what you’ve learned.  There’s a cool utility it comes with that automatically checks your work.  It leverages Rust’s testing framework.

I’m guessing this was created for a consultant-lead class, as there are comments in the exercises like this:

// If you get stuck for more than 10 minutes on an exercise, grab a trainer! We’re here to help!

But regardless, I’ve been working through the exercises with no issues.

I would emphasize that this is not an “introduction to programming” program for people who’ve never written code before.  It’s not going to teach you what a variable is, what a loop is, etc.  You’re expected to know another programming language, and then this course will teach you what’s new to you about Rust.

I truly think this is the best way to learn any programming language.  I’ve often had the experience in my career of sitting through a course and following along as the teacher goes deeper and deeper into a subject.  All was well until I sat down to actually touch the technology or write the code and then…wait, what did the teacher say at the beginning?  Concepts and ideas you can get from lectures but to really get the code “in your fingers,” you need to have hands on keyboard.

Different people learn different ways, but when it comes to tech, actually doing the work yourself is the only way to learn.  That’s what Rust Exercises gives you.  If you want to learn Rust, give it a try!

raindog308

raindog308 is a longtime community LETizen, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, raindog308 runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, raindog308 has a life-long love of German Shepherd Dogs, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, playing guitar, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.