Rust Learning Resources: Beginner to Expert

This document provides a curated list of reading materials and resources for learning Rust at all levels. Resources are organized by skill level and topic to help you find the right materials for your current learning phase.

Beginner Level Resources

Official Documentation

The Rust Book - The primary learning resource for Rust beginners
Rust by Example - Learn Rust through annotated examples
Rustlings - Small exercises to get you used to reading and writing Rust code

Interactive Learning

Exercism Rust Track - Coding exercises with mentorship
LeetCode - Practice algorithmic problems in Rust
Rust Playground - Experiment with Rust code in the browser

Video Courses

Rust Crash Course by Traversy Media
Rust for JavaScript Developers - Great for JS devs transitioning to Rust
Intro to Rust by Tensor Programming

Books for Beginners

“The Rust Programming Language” by Steve Klabnik and Carol Nichols - Official book
“Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development” by Jim Blandy, Jason Orendorff, and Leonora Tindall
“Rust in Action” by Tim McNamara
“Hands-on Rust” by Herbert Wolverson - Game development focused

Intermediate Level Resources

Official Documentation

Cargo Book - All about using Cargo effectively
Rust API Guidelines - Best practices for API design
Rust Design Patterns - Common patterns and idioms

Topic-Specific Learning

Command Line Applications in Rust - Guide for CLI apps
The Async Book - Asynchronous programming
Cookin’ with Rust - Practical examples for common tasks
Error Handling in Rust - Comprehensive guide by BurntSushi

Intermediate Books

“Rust for Rustaceans” by Jon Gjengset - Intermediate level Rust
“Zero To Production In Rust” by Luca Palmieri - Building a web application
“Black Hat Rust” by Sylvain Kerkour - Security-focused Rust

Videos & Talks

Crust of Rust by Jon Gjengset
RustConf talks - Annual conference presentations
Rust at Speed - Performance-focused overview

Advanced Level Resources

Official Documentation

The Rustonomicon - The dark arts of unsafe Rust
Rust Reference - Technical reference for the language
Rust Unstable Book - Unstable features

Advanced Topics

Pin and Suffering - Deep dive into Pin
Rust Atomics and Locks - Low-level concurrency by Mara Bos
Understanding Rust Futures by Going Way Too Deep
SIMD in Rust - Vectorization and SIMD optimization

Systems Programming

Writing an OS in Rust - Philipp Oppermann’s blog
Embedded Rust Book - Embedded systems programming
rustc Dev Guide - Compiler internals
inside.rust-lang.org - Rust team’s internal blog

Advanced Books

“Rust Atomics and Locks” by Mara Bos
“Rust for Rustaceans: Idiomatic Programming for Experienced Developers” by Jon Gjengset
“Hands-On Concurrency with Rust” by Brian L. Troutwine

Expert Level Resources

Language Deep Dives

MIR in Rustc - Mid-level IR in the compiler
Unsafe Code Guidelines - Expert-level unsafe Rust
Polonius - The next-gen borrow checker
Chalk - Rust’s trait system reimagined

Performance & Optimization

Compile-time Evaluation - Compile-time execution
LTO, PGO, and other Optimizations
Optimizing Rust - Advanced optimization guide

Specialty Topics

Source Code Study

Studying well-architected Rust codebases:

Rust standard library
Tokio - Async runtime
Serde - Serialization framework
Bevy - Game engine
ripgrep - Fast search tool

Community Resources

Reddit /r/rust
Rust users forum
Rust Discord
This Week in Rust - Weekly newsletter
URLO (Users) & IRLO (Internals) - Official forums
Rust Analyzer Blog - IDE implementation insights

Interactive Learning

Rust Quiz - Test your Rust knowledge
Rustlings Advanced - Advanced exercises
Advent of Code - Annual programming puzzles

Specialized Areas

Game Development

Web Development

Embedded Systems

Cryptography

RustCrypto - Collection of cryptographic algorithms
Dalek Cryptography - Cryptographic library implementations

Remember that the best way to learn is by doing. Combine these resources with practical projects to solidify your understanding.