Rust take-home challenges are a weird middle ground: they are small enough to finish in a weekend, but they often test production instincts that newer developers have not had many chances to practice.
If you are coming from a bootcamp or mostly JavaScript/Python background, the hard part usually is not "learning every Rust feature." It is showing that you can build a correct, explainable solution without fighting the compiler for the whole assignment.
Here are the patterns I would focus on first.
1. Treat ownership choices as design decisions
Do not silence borrow-checker errors by adding .clone() everywhere. Some clones are fine, but reviewers notice when cloning becomes the architecture.
