RusticJourney

A personal learning archive documenting a hands-on journey through Rust — from ownership basics to async runtimes, design patterns, and interview-level system design.

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Quick start

# Build everything in the workspace
cargo build --workspace

# Run all tests across every crate
cargo test --workspace

# Lint the entire workspace (warnings as errors)
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings

# Format all source files
cargo fmt --all

# The DSA sub-folder has its own nested workspace — run it separately
cd a2z-dsa-rust && cargo test

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Learning path

The crates follow a natural progression. Work through them roughly in this order:

Stage	Crate / Folder	Focus
1	RustBook/	Syntax, ownership, structs, enums, error handling
2	rust101-ztm-exercises/	Solidifying fundamentals with 33 exercises
3	lifetimes/	Lifetime annotations and borrow checker rules
4	oops-in-rust/	Traits, encapsulation, composition over inheritance
5	math_app/	Module system and visibility
6	macros/	Writing a procedural attribute macro
7	multithreading/	std::thread, Mutex, Condvar, channels
8	async-rust/	async/await, Tokio tasks, reqwest
9	rust-design-patterns/	Builder, Observer, Type-state (with tests)
10	tiny-rust-projects/	End-to-end CLI and network tools
11	rust-crypto/	Ed25519 signatures, base64, hex encoding
12	tree-of-space/	Raw pointers, unsafe, locking trees
13	a2z-dsa-rust/	Arrays, binary search
14	rust-leetcode-exercises/	LeetCode-style algorithm problems
15	interview-questions/	79 Rust interview problems
16	machine-coding-questions/	16 system-design problems

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Repository structure

RusticJourney/
├── Cargo.toml                        # root workspace — one build for all crates
├── rustfmt.toml                      # shared formatting rules
├── .clippy.toml                      # shared lint configuration
│
├── RustBook/                         # "The Rust Programming Language" exercises
│   ├── 2_guessing_game/
│   ├── 3_common_programming_concepts/
│   ├── 4_ownership/
│   ├── 5_structures/
│   ├── 6_enums_and_pattern_matching/
│   ├── 7_module_packages/
│   ├── 8_collections/
│   └── 9_error_handling/
│
├── rust101-ztm-exercises/            # Zero-to-Mastery Rust 101 (33 src/bin/ files)
├── lifetimes/                        # lifetime annotation examples
├── oops-in-rust/                     # OOP concepts modelled with traits
├── macros/                           # procedural attribute macro (syn + quote)
├── math_app/                         # module organisation demo
│
├── rust-design-patterns/             # design patterns with tests
│   └── src/bin/
│       ├── builder_pattern.rs        # typed errors, doc comments, #[cfg(test)]
│       ├── observer_pattern.rs       # Tokio broadcast channel
│       └── type_state_pattern.rs     # PhantomData state machine
│
├── async-rust/                       # async/await, Tokio tasks, reqwest client
├── multithreading/                   # threads, Mutex, Condvar, channels
├── tree-of-space/                    # Arc<Mutex<T>>, raw pointers, unsafe
│
├── interview-questions/              # 79 interview problems (src/bin/)
├── machine-coding-questions/         # 16 system-design problems (src/bin/)
│   └── src/bin/
│       ├── stock_exchange.rs         # order-matching engine
│       ├── lru_with_dll.rs           # LRU cache with doubly-linked list
│       ├── two_tier_storage_system.rs
│       ├── kv_store_with_transactions.rs
│       └── ...
├── rust-leetcode-exercises/          # LeetCode solutions
├── rust-cp-templates/                # competitive programming templates
│
├── a2z-dsa-rust/                     # DSA problems (own nested workspace)
│   └── arrays/                       # 19 array problems
│
├── tiny-rust-projects/               # standalone CLI and network tools
│   ├── calculator/                   # expression calculator
│   ├── cat/                          # unix cat clone (clap)
│   ├── grep/                         # unix grep clone (clap)
│   ├── http_server/                  # raw TCP HTTP/1.1 server
│   ├── read-json/                    # serde_json deserialisation
│   ├── write-json/                   # serde_json serialisation
│   └── redis/                        # async Redis server (Tokio)
│
├── rust-crypto/                      # ed25519 signatures, base64, hex
├── RustShortNotes/                   # PDF crash-course notes
└── rust-interview-questions-short-notes/  # quick-reference interview notes

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Crate highlights

Crate	Key concepts
rust-design-patterns	Builder with thiserror errors + tests, Observer via Tokio broadcast, Type-state with PhantomData
machine-coding-questions	Stock exchange matcher, LRU cache (raw pointers), two-tier TTL storage, transactional KV store
interview-questions	79 problems covering Arc, Mutex, channels, lifetimes, iterators, unsafe
a2z-dsa-rust/arrays	19 array problems (two-pointer, sliding window, prefix sums)
rust-leetcode-exercises	LeetCode problems — binary search, trees, dynamic programming
async-rust	Tokio multi-task concurrency, reqwest async HTTP
multithreading	std::thread, Mutex, Condvar, mpsc channels
tree-of-space	Locking spatial tree using Arc<Mutex<T>> and raw *mut pointers
macros	Procedural attribute macro built with syn and quote
rust-crypto	Ed25519 key generation, signing, verification; base64 and hex encoding
tiny-rust-projects/redis	Multi-module async TCP server (command parser, in-memory DB, connection handler)
tiny-rust-projects/cat & grep	clap-based CLI tools following Unix conventions

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Conventions

• Error types — thiserror for structured errors; Result<_, E> propagated with ?
• Derives — Debug, Clone, Default, Display on all domain types
• Workspace — shared dependency versions in [workspace.dependencies] keep lockfiles coherent
• Formatting — rustfmt.toml: 100-char lines, std → external → local import grouping
• Tests — #[cfg(test)] modules co-located with the code under test
• Unsafe — only used where the standard library offers no alternative, always with a comment explaining why

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Resources

• The Rust Programming Language
• Learn Rust With Entirely Too Many Linked Lists
• Zero To Mastery — Rust 101
• LeetCode
• Rust by Example
• Tokio documentation