Learn the difference between String and &str, and practice basic string operations in Rust.
Master common string methods: trimming, case conversion, searching, replacing, and splitting.
Learn to parse strings into typed values using parse(), FromStr trait, and error handling.
Build formatted strings efficiently using format!, write!, Display trait, and concatenation.
Understand UTF-8 encoding, count characters vs bytes, and safely slice Unicode strings.
Iterate over characters, words, and lines using Rust's string iterator methods.
Search for substrings, check prefixes/suffixes, find pattern positions, and extract text between markers.
Handle platform-specific strings with OsString and OsStr for cross-platform file path operations.
Learn set operations with HashSet: unique elements, intersection, union, difference, and subset checks.
Learn ordered maps with BTreeMap: sorted iteration, range queries, and first/last element access.
Master double-ended queues with VecDeque: FIFO operations, peek, and rotation.
Master iterator-based collection conversions: Vec to HashSet, HashMap from tuples, and more.
Master ordered sets with BTreeSet: range queries, finding closest elements, and efficient subset iteration.
Master HashMap's Entry API for efficient map updates: or_insert, or_insert_with, and_modify patterns.
Master priority queues with BinaryHeap: max-heap, min-heap, top-K elements, and heap sort.
Learn LinkedList operations: add/remove from both ends, peek, move-to-front for LRU patterns, and list concatenation.
Optimize HashMap performance with capacity management, reserve, shrink, bulk operations, and efficient merging.
Learn basic file reading patterns: read_to_string, BufReader, counting lines and words, and reading specific lines.
Master file writing patterns: write_all, BufWriter, appending to files, and efficient buffered writes.
Master cross-platform path handling with Path and PathBuf: joining, extracting components, and modifying extensions.
Learn to traverse directory trees: list files, find by extension/name, calculate sizes, and count files recursively.
Learn to work with file metadata: get file size, type, permissions, modification times, and compare files.
Master standard I/O operations: reading from stdin, writing to stdout/stderr, and buffer flushing.
Work with temporary files and directories: creation, cleanup patterns, and RAII-style automatic deletion.
Master iterator combinators: chain, zip, take, skip, rev, and create interleaved and sliding pair sequences.
Learn iterator inspection methods: enumerate for indices, peekable for lookahead, and inspect for debugging.
Master stateful iteration with fold() for aggregation and scan() for running computations like cumulative sums and averages.
Master iterator filtering methods: filter, filter_map, take_while, skip_while for selective data processing.
Process nested collections with flatten() and flat_map() to work with hierarchical data structures.
Implement the Iterator trait to create custom iterators: Fibonacci, StepRange, Collatz, Windows, and Unfold patterns.
Master Rust's standard conversion traits From and Into for type-safe, ergonomic conversions between types.
Learn fallible conversions with TryFrom and TryInto traits for validated type transformations that can fail gracefully.
Learn AsRef and AsMut traits for cheap reference-to-reference conversions, enabling generic functions that accept multiple types.
Master Borrow and ToOwned traits for owned vs borrowed patterns, and use Cow for efficient copy-on-write data handling.
Learn the Display trait for user-facing output and how ToString is automatically implemented when you implement Display.
Master Deref and DerefMut traits for smart pointer patterns and deref coercion.
Learn to work with std::time::Duration for time spans, formatting, arithmetic, and comparisons.
Work with std::time::SystemTime for timestamps, Unix epoch calculations, and time comparisons.
Learn to read environment variables, parse configuration values, and access process information using std::env.
Work with process IDs, exit codes, and process lifecycle management using std::process.
Learn safe numeric type conversions using TryFrom/TryInto and overflow-safe arithmetic with checked, saturating, and wrapping operations.
Handle floating-point special values (NaN, infinity), rounding, approximate comparisons, and safe arithmetic operations.
Parse integers from strings in various bases (decimal, binary, hex, octal) with error handling and automatic base detection.
Format numbers for display with padding, alignment, different bases (binary, hex, octal), precision, and currency formatting.
Understand Clone and Copy traits for duplicating values: derive macros, Copy constraints, and generic clone patterns.
Master Debug and Display traits for formatting types: derive Debug automatically, implement Display manually for user-facing output.
Learn equality traits PartialEq and Eq: derive for standard comparison, implement manually for custom equality logic.
Master ordering traits PartialOrd and Ord: derive for standard ordering, implement custom comparison logic for sorting and min/max.
Master the Hash trait for using custom types as HashMap keys and HashSet elements: derive vs manual implementation, consistency with Eq.
Master the Default trait for creating default values: derive for standard defaults, implement custom defaults, struct update syntax patterns.
Learn heap allocation with Box<T>: boxing values, recursive types, and modifying boxed data.
Learn shared ownership with Rc<T>: reference counting, Weak references, shared data structures, and observer patterns.
Learn thread-safe shared ownership with Arc<T>: atomic reference counting, Mutex for shared mutable state, and AtomicUsize for lock-free counters.
Master interior mutability with Cell<T> and RefCell<T>: runtime borrow checking, shared mutable state, and the Rc<RefCell<T>> pattern.
Master the Cow smart pointer for efficient borrowed vs owned data handling: avoid unnecessary clones with copy-on-write semantics.