Interview questions in Go & Rust, page 4
How do you initialize and manage Go dependencies?
Init with go mod init; use go get and go mod tidy; go.mod sets path and versions, go.sum stores checksums for verified builds.
What is the difference between Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock?
Cargo.toml declares broad requirements; Cargo.lock pins exact resolved versions.
What Go tool detects data races and how do you invoke it?
This tests Go's built-in race detector. A strong answer names the -race flag, notes it instruments memory accesses to catch concurrent unsynchronized reads/writes, and shows go test -race. A red flag is confusing it with static analysis or external tools.
How does cargo differentiate unit and integration tests by location?
This tests Rust test layout conventions. Unit tests live inside src files in cfg(test) modules; integration tests go in top-level tests/ files as separate crates. Red flag: saying integration tests need cfg(test) or can use private APIs.
Difference between go build and go install? Cross-compile for ARM64 Linux?
Tests Go toolchain artifact placement and native cross-compilation. A strong answer distinguishes go build (current directory) from go install ($GOBIN), then sets GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 for cross-compilation.
Explain Cargo features and how to define and enable them
This tests conditional compilation and optional dependency design in Rust. A strong answer outlines the [features] table, cfg attribute gating, and consumer enablement via --features or default features.
How do you manage multiple related Rust crates as a single unit?
Tests Cargo workspaces for multi-crate Rust projects. Strong answers cite the [workspace] section, shared Cargo.lock, unified target directory, inherited metadata, and workspace-wide commands.
Purpose and mechanism of a Rust build.rs script
Build.rs compiles and runs before the crate, emitting cargo: directives via stdout to set link flags, env vars, and rerun triggers; used to compile C, generate code, or probe the system.
What does go mod tidy do beyond adding dependencies?
Tests reproducible Go module graph knowledge. A strong answer covers that tidy reconciles imports with go.mod, prunes unused modules, and ensures go.sum contains every checksum for the minimal build list.
Read a file into a byte slice in Go and Rust
This tests standard-library convenience APIs for slurping files. In Go, use os.ReadFile (1.16+) returning ([]byte, error). In Rust, use std::fs::read returning Result<Vec<u8>>. A red flag is opening a file and looping over reads when a one-liner exists.
Build a TCP server in Go and Rust using standard libraries
Tests standard-library networking APIs in both languages. Strong answer: Go's net.Listen with Accept loop vs Rust's std::net::TcpListener::bind and incoming iterator. Red flag: reaching for HTTP or async frameworks instead of core TCP primitives.
Serialize a Go struct to JSON and contrast with Rust
This tests fluency in Go's encoding/json versus Rust's derive macro ecosystem. Go: call json.Marshal on exported fields; Rust: derive Serialize, then serde_json::to_string. Red flag: claiming Rust uses std-only serialization or that Go needs external crates.
Compare efficient line-by-line file reading in Go and Rust
Go uses bufio.Scanner with ScanLines/Scan(); Rust uses BufReader with lines() or read_line().
Compare Go's error tuples to Rust's Result for I/O
Tests trade-offs between Go's explicit error returns and Rust's Result type. Contrast Go's inline err checks with Rust's ? operator, noting verbosity versus compile-time exhaustiveness. Never call Result an exception or claim Go ignores errors.
Concurrent TCP server: Go goroutines vs Rust std::thread
Both accept in a loop; Go spawns a goroutine per connection (go handle(conn)); Rust spawns an OS thread (thread::spawn moving the stream).
Compare Go's []byte and Rust's &[u8]
Tests memory-model depth: Go slices are GC-managed headers (ptr, len, cap) permitting shared mutation, while Rust &[u8] is a borrow-checked fat pointer (ptr, len) enforcing aliasing-XOR-mutation.
Network read/write timeouts in Go vs Rust stdlib
Go uses SetReadDeadline/SetWriteDeadline as absolute times; Rust uses set_read_timeout/set_write_timeout as durations on TcpStream.
Cancellation: Go context vs Rust sync stdlib
Go's context.Context threads a Done channel and deadline through call chains; Rust std has no built-in cancellation, so you wire an AtomicBool or channel and check it.
How do you write a table-driven test in Go?
Tests idiomatic Go test design. A strong answer: slice/map of structs with inputs/expected outputs, loop with t.Run for named subtests, and cite DRY code, parallelization, and failure isolation. Red flag: separate Test functions per case or omitting t.Run.
How does Rust differentiate unit and integration tests?
Tests Rust test layout and privacy. Unit tests sit in src/ under #[cfg(test)] and call private functions via super::. Integration tests go in tests/ as external crates. Wrong: claiming it blocks private testing or merging them into src/.
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