Welcome to Elixir Systems Mastery with Livebook

livebooks/setup.livemd

@chops

elixir-phoenix

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Welcome to Elixir Systems Mastery with Livebook

Introduction

Welcome to the interactive learning experience for Elixir Systems Mastery! This repository transforms static markdown workbooks into executable Livebook notebooks, allowing you to learn by doing.

What is Livebook?

Livebook is an interactive, collaborative notebook for Elixir that allows you to:

Execute code directly in your browser
Visualize data and results in real-time
Share reproducible examples
Learn interactively with immediate feedback

For more information, visit https://livebook.dev

Environment Check

Let’s verify your Elixir environment is ready to go!

# Check Elixir version
IO.puts("Elixir Version: #{System.version()}")
IO.puts("OTP Version: #{System.otp_release()}")
IO.puts("ERTS Version: #{:erlang.system_info(:version)}")

# Verify we can run Mix
case System.cmd("mix", ["--version"]) do
  {output, 0} ->
    IO.puts("\n✅ Mix is available:")
    IO.puts(output)
  {_output, _} ->
    IO.puts("\n❌ Mix is not available or not in PATH")
end

:ok

How to Use Livebooks

Basic Controls

Evaluate a cell: Click the “Evaluate” button or press Ctrl+Enter (Mac: Cmd+Enter)
Add a new cell: Hover between cells and click the + button
Edit markdown: Double-click on any markdown cell
Navigate: Use the sidebar to jump between sections

Cell Types

Elixir cells: Contain executable Elixir code (shown with gray background)
Markdown cells: Contain formatted text and documentation
Smart cells: Special interactive cells for specific tasks (we’ll use these later!)

Tips for Learning

Experiment freely: All cells can be modified and re-executed
Use the REPL: Define variables in one cell and use them in another
Check your work: Most exercises include self-assessment checklists
Track progress: Use the dashboard to monitor your completion status

Repository Structure

This learning repository is organized into 15 phases:

livebooks/
├── setup.livemd (you are here!)
├── dashboard.livemd (track your progress)
├── phase-01-core/ (Elixir fundamentals)
├── phase-02-processes/ (Processes & Mailboxes)
├── phase-03-genserver/ (GenServer + Supervision)
├── phase-04-naming/ (Naming & Fleets)
├── phase-05-data/ (Data & Ecto)
├── phase-06-phoenix/ (Phoenix Web)
├── phase-07-jobs/ (Jobs & Ingestion)
├── phase-08-caching/ (Caching & ETS)
├── phase-09-distribution/ (Distribution)
├── phase-10-observability/ (Observability & SLOs)
├── phase-11-testing/ (Testing Strategy)
├── phase-12-delivery/ (Delivery & Ops)
├── phase-13-capstone/ (Capstone Integration)
├── phase-14-cto/ (CTO Track)
└── phase-15-ai/ (AI/ML Integration)

Quick Start Tutorial

Let’s try a simple example to get you comfortable with Livebook:

# Define a simple function
defmodule Hello do
  def greet(name) do
    "Hello, #{name}! Welcome to Elixir Systems Mastery!"
  end
end

# Call the function
Hello.greet("Developer")

Now try modifying the code above! Change “Developer” to your name and re-evaluate the cell.

Interactive Input Example

Livebook supports interactive inputs using Kino widgets:

# Create an interactive text input
name_input = Kino.Input.text("What's your name?")

# Read the input and use it
name = Kino.Input.read(name_input)

if name != "" do
  Kino.Markdown.new("""
  ## Welcome, #{name}!

  You're ready to start your Elixir journey! 🚀
  """)
else
  Kino.Markdown.new("Please enter your name above and re-evaluate this cell.")
end

Prerequisites

Before starting Phase 1, ensure you have completed:

✅ Phase 0: Tooling Foundation (development environment setup)
✅ Basic terminal/command line familiarity
✅ Git basics (clone, commit, push)
✅ Text editor or IDE configured

Start Learning: Phase 1

Phase 1 covers Elixir Core fundamentals through 7 interactive checkpoints:

Pattern Matching & Guards
- Master pattern matching on tuples, lists, and maps
- Learn when to use guards vs pattern matching
- Practice with multiple function heads
Recursion & Tail-Call Optimization
- Understand tail vs non-tail recursion
- Use accumulators for optimization
- Implement core list operations
Enum vs Stream
- Choose between eager and lazy evaluation
- Build pipeline transformations
- Process large files efficiently
Error Handling
- Use tagged tuples instead of exceptions
- Build with chains for success paths
- Handle errors gracefully
Property-Based Testing
- Identify invariant properties
- Write tests with StreamData
- Find edge cases automatically
Pipe Operator & Data Structures
- Master the pipe operator |>
- Choose appropriate data structures
- Parse CSV with binary patterns
Advanced Patterns
- Combine all Phase 1 concepts
- Build a streaming statistics calculator
- Complete the final challenge