What Can You Build With Ruby?

Knowing what Ruby is used for makes it easier to stay motivated while learning the basics:

• Web applications — with Ruby on Rails or the lighter Sinatra framework: online stores, social platforms, dashboards, SaaS products.
• APIs — JSON back ends for mobile apps and single-page front ends.
• Automation scripts — renaming files, cleaning up spreadsheets, generating reports, scheduled jobs.
• Command-line tools — utilities you run in a terminal, from small helpers to full tools like Homebrew.
• DevOps and infrastructure — deployment scripts and configuration tools (Chef and Vagrant are Ruby-based).
• Static site generators — Jekyll, which powers GitHub Pages, is written in Ruby.
• Testing tools — Ruby's RSpec and Capybara are used to test web applications, sometimes even ones not written in Ruby.

You will build smaller versions of several of these in the project lessons at the end of each level.