Fast, Reliable & Correct Data Pipelines in Rust. A 31-Course Coursera Specialization that takes you from Rust fundamentals through embedded databases, async ETL, analytics, GUI work, parallelism, and compile-time correctness — all the way to formal-contract-gated production pipelines.
🎓 Enroll on Coursera → https://www.coursera.org/specializations/rust
- What You'll Learn
- Courses
- Dashboard Order — publication order
- Recommended Learning Sequence — order to take them in
- Capstone Projects
- Instructors
- License
The curriculum is organized into five tracks that mirror the modern data engineering stack:
- Foundations & Systems — Rust fundamentals, Linux desktop, terminal workflows, CLI tools, and shipping production binaries.
- Data, Databases & Algorithms — SQLite, MySQL, Postgres, DuckDB, Polars, graph algorithms, and RAG pipelines.
- Cloud & DataOps — Serverless on AWS, GCP, monitoring & automation, CI/CD, and containers for data pipelines.
- AI & Adjacent Languages — Claude-driven workflows, Zig for systems work, and WebAssembly.
- Methodology & Ethics — Data ethics, Agile with AI, design by provable contracts, and Big-O thinking from Python to Rust.
Two views of the same 31 courses: dashboard order (publication order, below) and recommended learning sequence (re-ordered for dependency, further down). 🟢 Launched = live on Coursera; ⚪ Draft = in production.
Draft courses are in production and will be linked to their Coursera landing pages as they launch.
The same 31 courses, re-ordered for learning. Canonical source: SEQUENCE.md.
| Order | # | Course | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Rust from Zero | 🟢 |
| 2 | 11 | Terminal from Zero | 🟢 |
| 3 | 15 | Rust CLI from Zero | 🟢 |
| 4 | 13 | Shipping Rust | 🟢 |
| 5 | 30 | Big O Notation: Python to Rust | ⚪ |
| 6 | 31 | OO: Python to Rust | ⚪ |
| 7 | 29 | Bash to Rust: From Zero | ⚪ |
| 8 | 2 | SQLite for Rust | 🟢 |
| 9 | 20 | DuckDB from Zero | 🟢 |
| 10 | 5 | Polars from Zero | 🟢 |
| 11 | 18 | Postgres from Zero | 🟢 |
| 12 | 17 | MySQL from Zero | 🟢 |
| 13 | 21 | Valkey from Zero | 🟢 |
| 14 | 24 | HelixDB from Zero | 🟢 |
| 15 | 3 | ETL Pipelines with Rust | 🟢 |
| 16 | 22 | Rust for Data Source Monitoring and Automation | 🟢 |
| 17 | 16 | Graph Algorithms with Rust | 🟢 |
| 18 | 6 | Rust Serverless | 🟢 |
| 19 | 12 | Rust on GCP | 🟢 |
| 20 | 26 | IaC from Zero | 🟢 |
| 21 | 23 | Rust DataOps: CI/CD and Containers for Data Pipelines | 🟢 |
| 22 | 8 | Agile With AI | 🟢 |
| 23 | 14 | Claude from Zero | 🟢 |
| 24 | 19 | RAG from Zero | 🟢 |
| 25 | 25 | Design by Provable Contracts | 🟢 |
| 26 | 9 | Zig from Zero | 🟢 |
| 27 | 4 | Linux Desktop from Zero | 🟢 |
| 28 | 27 | TUI from Zero | ⚪ |
| 29 | 10 | Rust GUI from Zero | 🟢 |
| 30 | 28 | WASM from Zero | ⚪ |
| 31 | 7 | Data Ethics | 🟢 |
Every course includes a hands-on capstone that integrates all modules into a realistic scenario. Completed capstones make great portfolio artifacts to share on LinkedIn or GitHub. Browse the capstones/ directory for full project briefs.
Two courses ship Playground Readings — zero-install companion walkthroughs that run entirely on the Rust Playground, so you can master the core concepts in the browser before tackling the full capstone:
- Course 1 — Rust from Zero: six lesson-aligned exercises covering Rust fundamentals.
- Course 3 — ETL Pipelines with Rust: eight lesson-aligned sections on async pools, typed row deserialization, idempotent migrations, RAII-rollback transactions, and row-aligned validation.
- Noah Gift — Founder, Pragmatic AI Labs · Duke University faculty
- Alfredo Deza — Author and content creator · Python, Rust, DevOps, ML
- Liam Parker — Rust educator
Course content © Pragmatic AI Labs. Code examples are released under the MIT License.