9 Best Rust Programming Courses and Books for Beginners in 2024
Want to learn Rust in 2024? Here are the best online courses and books you can read to learn Rust from scratch.
Hello guys, If you are looking to learn the Rust Programming language in 2024 and looking for useful resources like books, tutorials, and online courses, then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared the best Golang courses, and in this article, I am going to share some of the best books and courses to learn Rust from scratch in 2024.
Rust is one of the relatively new (born in 2015) and powerful programming languages which combines the power of C++ with the safety of Java and other interpreted languages.
When a Programming language is designed, it was either designed for power like C/C++ or for safety like Java, Python, etc. but we didn’t have the best of both.
There were many attempts to combine the power of C/C++ and safety offered by Java, and it looks like only Rust has got that right. Since its debut in 2015, Rust has gained the attention of the world and the developer community.
One significant proof that it has been voted as the most desired programming language for the last four years in the StackOverflow survey. Its popularity is also growing day by day. According to GitHub Octoverse, Rust was the second-fastest-growing language the previous year just behind Dart, and it is also increasing in Google trends.
The significant advantage of Rust is the performance it offers, which makes it suitable for system programming. For a long, system programming and embedded programming space have been dominated by languages like C/C++. While they provide full control over programs and hardware, they lack memory safety.
It is also hard to write concurrent code using C++, while Java solves some of the C++ problems with respect to safety and concurrency; it did so at the expense of performance.
It offers safety but needs a bulky runtime called Java Virtual Machine or JVM. Because of their significant runtime, languages like Java are not suitable for System programming and never really made an inroad into that space.
Rust seems to offer the middle ground, while it provides blazing fast speed, which was only possible with C/C++ code; it also provides the safety of interpreted languages like Java, Haskel, Python.
This is the main reason for Rust’s rise in the space of System programming and the Big Data domain. It offers a credible alternative of languages like C/C++, D, and Golang for system programming.
If you are looking to learn a new Programming language that will improve your overall programming skills and practices in 2024, then the Rust programming language is the best programming language.
My favorite Online Courses learn Rust Programming Language in 2024
When it comes to learning a new programming language, I generally follow my 3-point formula, which starts with an online course and finishes with a personal project.
After learning the basics and core parts using an online course, I generally read a book while working on my own project built using the new programming language.
If you want to learn Rust, you can also follow this 3-point formula. Anyway, without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of some of the best courses to learn Rust in 2024.
1. Learn Rust by Building Real Applications
I like to learn by doing approach and that’s why when I see this course on Udemy I couldn’t resist. This is one of the best online courses to learn Rust in 2024 for beginners.
Created by Lyubomir Gavadinov, this practical Rust programming course will teach you the fundamentals of Rust. The format is a bit different than most other courses.
Instead of jumping between unrelated concepts in every video and showing examples that have nothing to do with the real-world use of the language, you will learn entirely through practice.
Here are the key things you will learn in this Rust course:
- The fundamentals of the Rust Programming Language
- Low-level memory management
- Rust’s unique approach to memory safety
- How to troubleshoot common compiler errors
You will build real Rust applications and introduce new concepts when we need them to solve actual problems. For example, you will learn Rust basics by building a command-line application and then move on to create a complete working HTTP server using Rust programming language.
Here is the link to join this Rust course — Learn Rust by Building Real Applications
2. Rust Programming: The Complete Developer’s Guide [ZTM]
This is another awesome course to learn Rust, the most loved programming language in 2024. If you don’t know, Rust has been voted as the most loved programming language in the StackOverFlow survey for the last 5 years, and why not, Rust is the next evolution of C/C++.
This course is created by ZTM’s Rust expert Jayson Lennon and it will teach you the Rust programming language from scratch! No previous experience is needed.
This 20+ hours long full HD course will teach you how to code & build real-world applications using Rust so that you can get hired and be recognized as a top programmer.
In short, one of the best online course to learn Rust in 2024. It has everything you need to go from complete beginner to getting hired as a Rust developer
Here is the link to join this course — Rust Programming: The Complete Developer’s Guide
Btw, you would need a ZTM membership to watch this course which costs around $39 per month but also provides access to many super engaging and useful 30+ courses created by experts like him. You can also use my code FRIENDS10 to get a 10% discount on any subscription you choose.
3. Rust Fundamentals [Pluralsight Course]
This is the best course to learn Rust on Pluralsight. It is from the same instructor as our first course, but the course is on Pluralsight, which means if you have a membership, you can access this course on Pluralsight, and no need to buy another course on Udemy.
In this course, you will first learn all the syntax and the specifics of the Rust Programming language. Next, you’ll be introduced to the fundamental Rust data types and their use in the declaration of variables.
By the end of this course, you’ll have a thorough understanding of Rust and its specific approach to the ideas of memory safety and explicit implementations of mutability, lifetime, and the concepts of sharing/borrowing data.
Here is the link to join this beginner Rust course — Rust Fundamentals
As I said, you would need a Pluralsight membership to access this course, if you don’t have one, then you can take advantage of their 10-day free trial to access this course for free. It offers 200 minutes of free watch time, which is enough to complete this course.
4. The Rust Programming Language [Udemy Best course]
This is one of the best courses to learn Rust Programming language online. It is created by Dmitri Nesteruk, a Quant developer and instructor of Java Design pattern and C++ design pattern courses on Udemy.
This online course provides an excellent overview of Rust and some coding experience you need. The best thing is that Dmitri lives to code everything he teaches, which makes it easy to follow him while learning.
This course is well structured and will teach you the fundamentals of Rust, starting from downloading and installing Rust to compatible programs and working with an IDE (IntelliJIDEA).
You’ll learn about fundamental data types in Rust and how to use them in your program. You will also learn about data structure in Rust like arrays, vectors, and strings and the concept of slices.
Here is the link to join this online course — The Rust Programming Language
You’ll also learn about functions, methods, closures, higher-order functions, and traits. The course also explains Rust’s explicit take on the concept of a lifetime with ownership, borrowing, lifetime specifiers, lifetime elision. Overall, one of the best courses to learn Rust for beginners.
5. Rust Programming Language: The Complete Course
This is another course that is worth looking to learn Rust Programming language from scratch. This course teaches you how to install Rust and then familiarize yourself with basic concepts like variables, data types, method syntax, enums, and more.
It also explains how the unique Ownership Principles of Rust impact language and safety. It also covers Data Handling, Pattern Matching, and Error Handling.
The best thing about the course is that you will build a sample Rust project where you can use various Rust concepts you have learned in the class.
The only thing is that you need a bit of programming experience; to get the most out of this course. The instructor doesn’t explain the fundamental things as it’s been mentioned. If you already know C/C++ or Java and looking to learn Rust as a second programming language, then this course is the best for you.
Here is the link to join this Rust course — Rust Programming Language: The Complete Course
6. Rust Programming Language for Beginners [Udemy Course]
This is another excellent course on Udemy to learn Rust Programming. It is created by Tim Buchalka’s Learn Programming Academy, whose Java Programming course is my favorite. This time he teamed up with Diwaker Singh to create this excellent course on Rust.
It is a very comprehensive course with more than 19.5 hours of content and covers almost everything about Rust. Even if you don’t have any programming experience, you can learn by following this course and its curriculum.
This course is suitable for both beginners and intermediates, who wish to become an expert in using the Rust Programming Language, and if you want to learn something useful in 2024, learn Rust and give your career a boost.
Here is the link to join this Rust course — Rust Programming Language for Beginners
7. Learn Rust from Scratch [Educative FREE Course]
This is a free, interactive, text-based course to learn Rust Programming in 2024 by Educative. If you don’t know, Educative is a new online learning platform that allows you to learn by text and image-based tutorial and code in the same window.
While Educative also has one of the best Rust courses — The Ultimate Guide to Rust Programming, you can first start with this free course, especially if you like to learn from free tutorials and resources.
This free course aims to teach Rust using a practical approach. It begins with a simple “Hello world” program and proceeds to cover common concepts such as Arrays, Strings, Vectors, Enums, Structures, Traits, generics, Functions, and Logic.
Finally, it dives deeper into more advanced concepts like Lifetime and memory management, which is Rust’s strength. By the time you’re done, you’ll have a good grip on the basics of Rust; and will be ready to study more advanced concepts.
Here is the link to join this interactive Rust course — Learn Rust from Scratch
The best thing about the course is that it’s completely free and all you need is to create an educative account to access this course, btw, they also have a lot of useful classes like Grokking the System Design Interview course which is not free but worth looking. If you like the platform, I suggest you get an Educative subscription which allows their 100+ courses access for just $18
2 Best Books to learn Rust Programming in 2024
Now that we have seen the best Rust course it's time to check out some books you can read to learn Rust programming language in 2024. Books are often more in-depth than courses and complement them. If you truly want to master the Rust programming language I suggest you combine books with online courses in your learning journey.
1. Fullstack Rust
The Fullstack Rust: The Complete Guide to Building Apps with the Rust Programming Language and Friends is one of my favorite books to learn Rust in 2024.
This book is created by Nate and his team who have authored The Ng book and Fullstack React book, two of the most popular books to learn Angular and React. This book is authored by Andy Weiss, a software engineer at Google.
The Fullstack Rust book is the complete guide to building fast, production-ready Rust apps. While there are some good resources on how to learn the Rust programming language by itself, what these other books don’t teach is how to build applications with Rust.
Fullstack Rust solves that. In this book, we show you how to use Rust to build incredibly fast web servers, build command-line tools, and compile apps to run in the browser with Web Assembly (WASM).
The best thing about the book is its structure, The book is structured in a digestible way that teaches the what, how, and why of the Rust programming language.
Here is the link to buy this Rust book — Fullstack Rust
2. Rust in Action (Book)
As I mentioned before, I love to read books, and I learn most when I combine a course with a book. If you also love books and looking for a good book on Rust, then you should check out Rust in Action by Manning publication.
This book introduces the Rust programming language by exploring numerous systems programming concepts and techniques. You’ll be learning Rust by delving into how computers work internally.
Like all the above courses, this book also teaches you all the syntax of Rust, essential programming concepts like an array, vectors, and data structures but in more depth. You’ll also learn about Rut’s safety features and more advanced concepts like Lifetime and memory management.
Here is the link to buy this book on Amazon — Rust in Action
That’s all about some of the best online courses and books to learn Rust in 2024. If you are looking for a robust language for System programming and Big Data, you should learn Rust. Its demand is also growing, and right now, there is a good demand for programmers who knows Rust.
If you want to be part of the niche of Rust developer, you should join one of these courses to learn Rust. I have also included one book, Rust in Action, just in case you prefer to learn from books than online courses.
Is Rust worth Learning in 2024? Why Learn Rust in 2024
Why learn Rust? ZTM academy's Rust expert Jayson gives his top 5 reasons why you should learn Rust in 2024 and beyond:
- Rust Puts Developers First and that’s one of the reasons why it's the most loved programming language.
- Dependable Code
- WebAssembly (Wasm)
- Industry Support (it’s not the “most loved” programming language for nothing!)
- Proven Track Record
What do I think about learning Rust? My personal take is that Rust is unlike any other programming language out there and learning Rust might be one of the best decisions you can make in 2024.
Rust is quickly becoming one of the most popular languages among systems and embedded programmers, and the demand for Rust developers is growing considerably.
Even if you are not interested in embedded and System programming, Rust can significantly improve your programming skills by teaching you several new concepts that are not available in mainstream programming languages.
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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like this article, then please share it with your friends, if you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.
P. S. — If you are interested in learning Rust programming language but looking for a free online training course to start your Rust journey then you can also check out Rust for Undergrads — a free course on Udemy. It’s a great course to learn the basics of Rust Programming language and it’s also completely free.
