Let's Learn Ruby
a resource list
Learn Ruby: a resource list
Hi! As a second-career developer who didn’t go through a bootcamp, I’ve found it helpful to keep a road map of learning resources—building my own curriculum, in a way. I hope this list helps you too!
If you notice any broken links here, please let me know by opening an issue.
Table of contents
- Basics
- Foundational tools
- Advanced Ruby and Rails
- Front end
- Expanding my horizons
- Games in Ruby
- Ruby blogs, podcasts, screencasts
- Rails codebases to study
🔗 Basics
🔗 Front-end basics
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Learn some HTML, CSS, and JS
The Odin Project - Foundations path or resources under “Front end” below.
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Build a blog from scratch
Here’s the first iteration of my blog, and here’s how I built it. Building a blog is not only a good exercise in itself, but it might also give you extra motivation to write about what you learn.
🔗 Ruby basics
🔗 Basics
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The Odin Project - Ruby
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GoRails - Ruby for Beginners
If you prefer videos.
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Try Ruby
And BigBinary Academy. If like an interactive approach.
🔗 Guided practice
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Exercism - Ruby
Be sure to take notes each time you learn something new in an exercise, and at the end you could write up your reflections (here are mine).
🔗 OOP (object-oriented programming)
🔗 Build stuff with Ruby
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A CLI (command-line interface) app
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A game
See the Games in Ruby section.
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A static site
Bridgetown is great for (among other things) building static sites, which are simpler than SSR (server-side rendered) sites à la Rails. Maybe rebuild your blog? Be sure to join the Bridgetown Discord server—the maintainers are very welcoming and helpful to newbies.
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More ideas
Coding Challenges, Build your own X, Projectbook, Project-based learning.
🔗 Reference
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Ruby API
Mentioning it up here because it’s the best Ruby docs site but very little-known. Since its search uses a query param, you can add a search keyword to your browser to let you quickly search from the address bar, for example
rb partitionwould take you to https://rubyapi.org/3.2/o/s?q=partition.
🔗 Rails basics
🔗 Basics
🔗 Testing
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💲 Jason Swett - The Complete Guide to Rails Testing
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thoughtbot - Testing Rails
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💲 Effective Testing with RSpec 3
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💲 The Minitest Cookbook
🔗 Polishing up
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Style guides
For Ruby, Rails, and RSpec.
🔗 Getting hired
🔗 Get real-world experience to put on your resume
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Contribute to open source projects
I’ve written a short guide on how to get started.
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Ruby Central - Scholars and Guides Program
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The Recurse Center
You’ll need to dedicate 6 or 12 weeks to this one.
🔗 The job search
🔗 Ruby/Rails communities
🔗 Communities
🔗 Newsletters
🔗 Mentorship
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First Ruby Friend
Where aspiring and first-year developers are connected with a mentor.
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r/rails
🔗 Foundational tools
🔗 SQL
🔗 Basics
🔗 Advanced
🔗 Git
🔗 Basics
🔗 Advanced
🔗 How the Internet works
🔗 Linux / command line
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Install and use Linux
My post on switching to Linux might give you some pointers.
🔗 Advanced Ruby and Rails
🔗 Advanced Ruby
🔗 Text processing
🔗 Misc
🔗 Advanced Rails
🔗 Reference
🔗 Architecture
🔗 Front end
🔗 HTML and CSS
🔗 Community
🔗 JS
🔗 Basics
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JavaScript for impatient programmers
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Modern JavaScript Explained For Dinosaurs
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What the heck is the event loop anyway?
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MDN - JavaScript
🔗 DOM, forms, and other Web APIs
🔗 React
🔗 Going deeper
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You Don't Know JS Yet
Be sure to read the last three parts after they’re finished.
🔗 Web components
🔗 UI and usability
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💲 Don't Make Me Think
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💲 The Design of Everyday Things
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Victor Ponamariov - 50 Tips to Improve User Interface
🔗 Hotwire
🔗 Community and news
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StimulusReflex community on Discord
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Joe Masilotti's newsletter
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Hotwire Weekly
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The Hotwire Club
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Hotwiring Rails
🔗 Expanding my horizons
🔗 Be a mentor
🔗 Career advancement
🔗 Computer science
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💲 Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
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From Nand to Tetris
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💲 Data Structures and Algorithms in Java
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💲 Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces
🔗 Design patterns
🔗 Learn functional programming
🔗 Games in Ruby
🔗 Ruby game libraries
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💲 DragonRuby Game Toolkit
It’s my recommendation because it has the liveliest community, and all the resources below are for DragonRuby. You may qualify for a free license (see “Free Unrestricted License” on the homepage), and the creators regularly give it away for free during game jams and other special occasions.
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Ruby 2D
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Gosu
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MiniGL
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Taylor
🔗 DragonRuby tutorials
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Building Games with DragonRuby
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Let's make Tetris with DragonRuby Game Toolkit, Part 1
And Part 2.
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Notes on DragonRuby Game Toolkit
🔗 DragonRuby community, reference, tools
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Discord server
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Docs
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Zif
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Dragon Riders Community
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DragonRuby Treasure
A collection of games made with DragonRuby.
🔗 Ruby blogs, podcasts, screencasts
🔗 Blogs
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Code with Jason
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Fly.io - The Ruby Dispatch
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Fullstack Ruby
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Noel Rappin's Blog
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One Ruby Question
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Write Software, Well
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zverok on lucid code and open data
🔗 "Let's build" screencasts
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CJ Avilla
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Conner Jensen
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Dr. Nic
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Justin Searls
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Kasper Timm Hansen with Jeremy Smith
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Mix & Go
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TypeFast
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Web-Crunch
🔗 Topical screencasts
🔗 Streams
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ChaelCodes
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CodingWithCaleb
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fractaledmind
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FullStackLive
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jhawthorn
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TenderlovesCoolStuff
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thoughtbot on YouTube
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thoughtbot on Twitch
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yesthatelise
🔗 Podcasts
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Bike Shed
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Code and the Coding Coders who Code it
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Code with Jason
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Fullstack Ruby
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IndieRails
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Rails Changelog
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Remote Ruby
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Rooftop Ruby
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Rubber Duck Dev Show
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Ruby for All
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Ruby on Rails Podcast
Especially starting at episode 372 went they went independent, brought on co-hosts, and hired an editor.
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Tightly Coupled Book Club
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YAGNI
🔗 Rails codebases to study
🔗 Small codebases
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github.com/krschacht/37signals-rails-code
<2k lines. Extracts from the Basecamp and Hey codebases.
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github.com/carsoncole/workypad
2k lines. App for managing job prospecting.
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github.com/SpinaCMS/Spina
5k lines. CMS (Content Management System).
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github.com/docusealco/docuseal
6k lines. Open source DocuSign alternative.
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github.com/codetriage/codetriage
6k lines. Issue tracker for open-source projects.
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github.com/demingfactor/calagator
9k lines. Community calendar platform.
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github.com/joemasilotti/railsdevs.com
12k lines. The reverse job board for Ruby on Rails developers.
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github.com/RailsEventStore/ecommerce
12k lines. Example app showing DDD (Domain-Driven Design), CQRS, and Event Sourcing.
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github.com/TheOdinProject/theodinproject
12k lines. Main website for The Odin Project web development learning platform.
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github.com/lobsters/lobsters
13k lines. Hacker News clone.
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github.com/thoughtbot/upcase
14k lines. Learning platform for developers.
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github.com/CircuitVerse/CircuitVerse
15k lines. Digital logic circuit simulator. Has a Vue.js front end.
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github.com/houndci/hound
14k lines. Automated code review for GitHub PRs.
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github.com/chicago-tool-library/circulate
17k lines. A lending library management system.
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github.com/rubyforgood/pet-rescue
19k lines. Connects adopters/fosters with pets.
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github.com/ifmeorg/ifme
21k lines. Mental health communication web app to share experiences with loved ones.
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github.com/openSUSE/osem
25k lines. Event management tool tailored to Free and Open Source Software conferences.
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github.com/feedbin/feedbin
25k lines. RSS reader.
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github.com/rubygems/rubygems.org
26k lines. Where Ruby gems are hosted.
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github.com/huginn/huginn
36k lines. Web task automation.
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github.com/AlchemyCMS/alchemy_cms
36k lines. CMS (Content Management System).
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github.com/rubyforgood/casa
37k lines. Volunteer management system for the nonprofit CASA.
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github.com/rubyforgood/human-essentials
39k lines. An inventory management system for essentials supply banks.
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github.com/SumOfUs/Champaign
39k lines. Digital campaigning platform. A Rails app generator.
🔗 Larger codebases
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github.com/WikiEducationFoundation/WikiEduDashboard
50k lines. Wikipedia course dashboard system. Has a React front end.
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github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot
56k lines. Customer engagement suite. Has a Vue.js front end.
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github.com/solidusio/solidus
72k lines. E-commerce platform.
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github.com/mastodon/mastodon
75k lines. Like Twitter but self-hosted and federated.
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github.com/openfoodfoundation/openfoodnetwork
102k lines. An online marketplace for local food.
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github.com/forem/forem
103k lines. Powers the blogging site dev.to. Uses Preact on the front end.
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github.com/redmine/redmine
117k lines. Project management app.
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github.com/alphagov/whitehall
117k lines. Publishes government content on gov.uk.
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github.com/zammad/zammad
250k lines. Helpdesk/customer support system.
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github.com/decidim/decidim
288k lines. The participatory democracy framework.
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github.com/discourse/discourse
322k lines. Discussion forum platform. Has an Ember.js front end.
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github.com/opf/openproject
368k lines. Project management software.
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github.com/instructure/canvas-lms
745k lines. A popular LMS (learning management system).
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gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab
1.8 million lines. Like GitHub but with CI/CD and DevOps features built in. Uses Vue.js on the front end. Has great docs on architecture.