My Week at Hackquest Bootcamp: Learning Arbitrum and Rust in Web3

This past week, I embarked on a deep dive into Arbitrum and Rust through Hackquest. It’s been an intense, rewarding journey, with some complex concepts along the way, but each day has brought me closer to becoming more fluent in Web3 development. Here’s a breakdown of my week and the progress I've made.

Day 1: Kicking Off with Arbitrum Basics

Starting with Arbitrum, I tackled Unit 1, which introduced the history and objectives of the Arbitrum platform. I learned why Arbitrum is critical for scaling Ethereum, exploring its advantages and how its mainnet and testnets support developers to build decentralized applications that are efficient and fast.

Days 2-3: Understanding Arbitrum’s Variants

I dug into the intricacies of various Arbitrum products. Units 2 through 6 took me through:

• Arbitrum Classic – An initial overview that set the groundwork for understanding the product’s purpose.

• Arbitrum One – Here, I dove into Arbitrum Nitro's background and architecture, gaining insight into the more advanced technical elements and innovations in scalability.

• Arbitrum Nova – Learning about Nova’s architecture highlighted a new approach Arbitrum uses to support social and gaming applications.

• Arbitrum Orbit – This product introduced new advantages for developers and gave me a perspective on customizability within the Arbitrum ecosystem.

• Arbitrum Stylus – Rounding off, I explored Stylus’s unique architecture. This was exciting as it focused on newer possibilities in the Arbitrum ecosystem, something I’m eager to explore further in my projects.

Days 3-7: Rust Basics and Building a Game

While Arbitrum felt mostly conceptual, diving into Rust was hands-on. Rust, being known for its memory safety and performance, also has a steep learning curve. I struggled at first with the syntax, especially around data types and loops. Concepts like ownership, borrowing, and lifetime annotations added to the challenge, as they felt very different from traditional programming languages.

After getting a feel for Rust, I took on a guided project to build a simple “Bulls and Cows” game. In this game, the program generates a random number between 1-10, and the player tries to guess it. Writing the logic from scratch and seeing it run successfully was an incredible feeling! Rust’s strict rules made me think carefully about every line of code, which was frustrating at times but, in the end, rewarding.

Final Thoughts on Week 1

Learning Arbitrum and Rust simultaneously was intense but worthwhile. I found the conceptual nature of Arbitrum easier to grasp than the hands-on coding with Rust, which threw me into some challenging problem-solving moments. However, Hackquest’s approach and community support helped me push through, especially with Rust. As I complete my first week on a 7-day streak, I’m excited about what's next on this journey.

#LearnwithHQ #14DaysOfLearning