Select your current position
Pick a role and level — we'll show the growth path, skills and gap analysis.
Development path
Junior
0-2 years
Responsibility: Building HTTP handlers with Actix/Axum. Writing tests. Working with ownership/borrowing. Learning async Rust. Working with sqlx.
Key skills:
Middle
2-5 years
Responsibility: Designing APIs with Axum/Actix. Working with tokio runtime. Optimizing allocations. Unsafe Rust when necessary. FFI with C/C++.
Key skills:
Senior
5-8 years
Responsibility: Designing high-load systems. Building crate libraries. Zero-copy optimization. Async runtime design. Embedded Rust.
Key skills:
Lead / Staff
7-12 years
Responsibility: Rust platform architecture. Performance and safety standards. Choosing Rust vs Go/C++ for tasks. Rust in production ecosystem.
Key skills:
Principal
10+ years
Responsibility: Rust ecosystem strategy. Contributions to Rust core/ecosystem. Architecture for extreme performance. Cross-language interop strategy.
Key skills:
Gap analysis: skills to develop
To reach the next level you'll need to develop:
Independently implements tasks with Apache Kafka in actix-web/axum. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests with cargo test.
Optimizes connection pooling in Rust: configures sqlx pool with connection lifecycle management, implements health checking through deadpool Manager trait, applies connection recycle policies. Monitors pool utilization through tracing spans and custom metrics.
Implements CQRS in Rust projects: creates separate command and query modules with typed handlers, uses sqlx/SeaORM for different read/write models, applies tokio channels for event propagation. Ensures compile-time guarantees through generic constraints on command/query types.
Develops gRPC services on tonic with server/client streaming, interceptors for authentication and request metadata. Configures tonic-build for code generation, implements error mapping through tonic::Status and connects reflection service for grpcurl.
Develops gRPC services in Rust with tonic: implements streaming RPC with tokio-stream, configures Tower middleware for interceptors, uses tonic-health for health checking. Applies Rust type system for compile-time guarantees of correct gRPC interactions.
Independently designs schemas and optimizes queries with PostgreSQL. Understands indexing and query execution plans. Uses diesel/sea-orm effectively.
Implements rate limiting in Rust services: creates custom Tower layer for per-key rate limiting, uses governor crate for flexible rate limiting algorithms, implements distributed limiting through Redis with fred/deadpool-redis. Optimizes through atomic operations for lock-free counting.
Independently implements tasks with Redis in actix-web/axum. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests with cargo test.
Develops REST API on Axum/Actix-web with middleware layers (tower layers), validation through validator crate and structured error responses. Implements pagination, filtering and HATEOAS links with type-safe response structures.
Independently implements tasks with Rust Web Frameworks in actix-web/axum. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests with cargo test.
Independently applies algorithmic thinking in Rust: selects iterator-based algorithms for zero-copy processing, understands ownership model impact on algorithm design, evaluates concurrent algorithm patterns with atomics and channels. Analyzes complexity of data processing in systems-level Rust code.
Independently applies async programming in Rust: tokio/async-std runtime, Future composition with async/await, pinning and lifetime management in async contexts. Understands trade-offs between sync and async Rust, task spawning vs structured concurrency.
Implements Rust generics with trait bounds: writes generic functions and structs with where clauses and multiple trait bounds. Understands monomorphization and its impact on binary size vs runtime performance. Applies lifetime parameters in generic contexts ('a), combines generics with trait objects (dyn Trait) when dynamic dispatch is needed. Uses PhantomData for zero-cost type-level markers.
Develops comprehensive API documentation for Rust services: OpenAPI 3.0 through utoipa with examples, authentication description (SecurityScheme), grouping by tags. Configures automated documentation generation in CI and publishing through Swagger UI/Redoc.
Independently designs schemas and optimizes queries with database indexing. Understands indexing and query execution plans. Uses diesel/sea-orm effectively.
Independently applies code quality practices in Rust development. Writes clean code with clear ownership semantics, proper error types, and ergonomic APIs. Understands trade-offs between generics complexity and API usability. Reviews code for unsafe usage, lifetime correctness, and trait design clarity.
Independently designs schemas and optimizes queries with database migrations. Understands indexing and query execution plans. Uses diesel/sea-orm effectively.
Independently applies multithreading in Rust: Send/Sync trait system for thread safety guarantees, Arc<Mutex> for shared state, tokio runtime for async concurrency, crossbeam for lock-free data structures. Explains Rust ownership model advantages for concurrent code in review.
Independently designs schemas and optimizes queries with query optimization. Understands indexing and query execution plans. Uses diesel/sea-orm effectively.
Works with network protocols in Rust services: TLS through rustls/native-tls, HTTP/2 through hyper, WebSocket through tokio-tungstenite. Configures connection pooling, timeouts and retry logic in reqwest/hyper clients considering backpressure.
Works with message brokers in Rust: implements consumer groups through rdkafka with offset management, uses NATS through async-nats for lightweight messaging, applies tokio channels for internal message passing. Handles backpressure through bounded channels and flow control.
Independently applies design patterns for Rust: trait-based strategy and visitor patterns, builder for complex struct construction, newtype pattern for type safety, state machine pattern with enums. Explains Rust-specific pattern choices considering ownership and lifetimes.
Independently applies SOLID principles in Rust: trait-based polymorphism instead of inheritance, single responsibility in module/crate design, dependency inversion through trait objects and generics. Understands Rust-specific OOP trade-offs — composition over inheritance, trait coherence rules, zero-cost abstractions.
Independently designs schemas and optimizes queries with data modeling and schema design. Understands indexing and query execution plans. Uses diesel/sea-orm effectively.
Independently uses DHAT, heaptrack, and Valgrind/Massif to profile Rust application memory. Understands how ownership patterns and borrow checker semantics affect allocation behavior and chooses profiling strategies accordingly.
Implements API versioning in Rust services through Axum middleware or Actix-web guards, supporting multiple versions simultaneously. Applies serde with #[serde(default)] and #[serde(skip_serializing_if)] for backward-compatible JSON schema evolution.
Independently implements tasks with caching strategies in actix-web/axum. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests with cargo test.
Independently selects appropriate data structures in Rust: Vec vs VecDeque for sequential data, HashMap vs BTreeMap for keyed lookups, Arc<Mutex> vs channels for shared state. Understands trade-offs between ownership patterns and data structure borrowing semantics.
Independently applies Rust's type system for backend services — leveraging ownership and borrowing for memory safety, using enums with associated data for state machines, and applying trait bounds for generic service abstractions. Understands trade-offs between dynamic dispatch and monomorphization. Explains lifetime annotations and type-level programming to colleagues.
Applies Rust ownership model effectively: understands move semantics, borrowing rules, and lifetime annotations. Uses Box, Rc, Arc appropriately for heap allocation patterns. Handles interior mutability with RefCell and Mutex. Understands stack vs heap allocation trade-offs and when to use references vs owned values.
Implements sharding in Rust: creates shard-aware connection pool manager, implements consistent hashing with jump hash or rendezvous hashing, handles cross-shard queries through async scatter-gather with tokio. Uses Rust type system for compile-time shard routing safety.