Exercise to improve your Rust skills

Build a high-performance, multi-threaded web server in Rust capable of handling incoming HTTP requests concurrently.

Project Steps:

1. Setup and Dependencies:

   • Create a new Rust project using Cargo.

   • Add necessary dependencies, such as the hyper crate for handling HTTP and other utility crates.

2. Server Structure:

   • Define a data structure to hold server configuration, such as port number, number of threads, etc.

3. HTTP Request Handling:

   • Implement a request handler function that receives incoming HTTP requests.

   • Parse the request, determine the resource (e.g., URL path), and prepare a response.

4. Concurrent Processing:

   • Utilize Rust's std::thread to create a pool of concurrent worker threads that handle incoming requests.

   • Use a thread-safe data structure (e.g., Arc, Mutex) to share resources among threads.

5. Routing and Handling:

   • Implement a routing system to map URL paths to corresponding request handler functions.

   • Design middleware components (e.g., logging, authentication) that can be applied to routes.

6. Error Handling:

   • Implement a robust error-handling mechanism using Rust's Result and ? operator.

   • Handle various types of errors gracefully and return appropriate HTTP status codes.

7. Static File Serving:

   • Add support for serving static files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) from a specified directory.

8. Testing:

   • Write unit and integration tests for various components, ensuring the server works as expected.

9. Custom Macros:

   • Create custom macros to simplify repetitive tasks like route definition or response generation.

10. Documentation and Logging:

    • Document your code thoroughly using Rustdoc.

    • Integrate a logging framework to capture server events and errors.

11. Performance Optimization:

    • Profile the server using tools like cargo flamegraph to identify bottlenecks.

    • Optimize critical sections using techniques you've learned in the "Performance and Optimization" chapter.

12. Deployment:

    • Investigate deployment options, such as Dockerizing the server or deploying to a cloud provider.

    • Ensure the server can handle real-world traffic and maintain stability under load.

Benefits of the Project:

• This project will showcase your mastery of advanced Rust concepts, including concurrency, error handling, macros, and more.

• You'll gain hands-on experience building a practical, multi-threaded application with real-world use cases.

• Developing a web server is a valuable skill that aligns well with backend engineering roles and modern web development practices.

Completing this project will demonstrate your expertise in advanced Rust programming and provide you with a solid foundation for building complex, high-performance applications in Rust.