A complete Elixir, Erlang, OTP, and Phoenix curriculum for experienced Rails engineers making the paradigm shift from object-oriented to functional programming. Built on the ecosystem's canonical books and courses, reinforced with free resources.

Join the path to enroll in courses — they unlock in order as you finish each one.

Elixir/Phoenix Media Track #

Companion viewing and listening for the Elixir/Phoenix Mastery Curriculum. Curated for experienced Rails engineers making the paradigm shift -- every recommendation here earns its place by either changing how you think about concurrency, showing you what the BEAM makes possible, or giving you production war stories you cannot get from books.

All conference talks are free on YouTube. No paid subscriptions required.

Conference Talks (Must-Watch) #

Functional Programming Foundations (Module 0) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"Elixir: A Mini-Documentary"	Honeypot	Origin story of the language, Jose's motivations -- sets the emotional context	15
"Railway Oriented Programming"	Scott Wlaschin	THE talk on FP error handling with pipelines -- directly maps to Elixir's `with` and `\	>`
"Functional Programming in 40 Minutes"	Russ Olsen	Best single-talk FP primer -- no Elixir-specific, pure paradigm shift	40
"Why Functional Programming Matters"	John Hughes	The classic argument for FP from the author of the paper	50
"Elixir: The Only Sane Choice in an Insane World"	Brian Cardarella	Why a Rails shop (DockYard) switched to Elixir -- you will relate	40

Elixir Language Mastery (Module 1) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"Elixir -- A Modern Approach to Programming for the Erlang VM"	Jose Valim	The creator explains the design decisions behind every language choice	45
"Think Different"	Dave Thomas	Dave Thomas (Pragmatic Programmers) on transforming thinking from OOP to Elixir	40
"All the Great Things About Elixir"	Dave Thomas	Why Elixir is not just "Ruby on the BEAM" -- deeper than syntax	35
"Idiomatic Elixir"	Desmond Bowe	Writing Elixir like an Elixir developer, not a Ruby developer in disguise	30
"Pattern Matching: The Underrated Superpower"	Various (ElixirConf)	Search ElixirConf -- multiple good talks on this; pick the most recent	30

OTP -- The Superpower (Module 2) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"The Soul of Erlang and Elixir"	Sasa Juric	THE talk. If you watch one video in this entire track, watch this. Live-codes a fault-tolerant system from scratch.	45
"Elixir and OTP"	Sasa Juric	Deeper OTP walkthrough -- GenServer, Supervisor trees, real patterns	50
"GenServer, Registry, and DynamicSupervisor"	Elixir School	Practical OTP building blocks explained with running code	30
"Building Resilient Systems with OTP"	Chris Keathley	Production OTP patterns -- what to supervise, what to let crash	40
"It's About the Guarantees"	Fred Hebert	Why "let it crash" is not about crashing -- it is about guarantees	45

Erlang Foundations & the BEAM (Module 3) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"The Mess We're In"	Joe Armstrong	MUST WATCH. Co-creator of Erlang on complexity, concurrency, and the future of computing. Funny, brilliant, irreplaceable.	45
"Erlang -- Software for a Concurrent World"	Joe Armstrong	Joe explains WHY Erlang exists -- the telecom origin story	50
"Erlang: The Movie" (1990)	Ericsson	The legendary 1990 Ericsson internal training film. Historically priceless. Watch it for the vibes.	11
"The Zen of Erlang"	Fred Hebert	Best single explanation of Erlang philosophy and supervision design	50
"Hitchhiker's Tour of the BEAM"	Robert Virding	Co-creator of Erlang walks through the virtual machine internals	45
"Understanding the Erlang Scheduler"	Lukas Larsson	How the BEAM actually schedules processes -- essential for perf understanding	40

Phoenix Framework (Module 4) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"Phoenix -- Productive. Reliable. Fast."	Chris McCord	Framework creator's vision talk -- the Rails comparison you need	45
"Phoenix: An Introduction"	Chris McCord	Hands-on walkthrough of Phoenix from zero	40
"Phoenix Is Not Your Application"	Lance Halvorsen	Critical mental model shift: Phoenix is the web interface, not your app	35
"Ecto: An Introduction"	Darin Wilson	Ecto vs ActiveRecord -- the composable query approach explained	30
"Designing Elixir Systems With OTP"	James Edward Gray II & Bruce Tate	How to structure Phoenix apps around OTP, not MVC	45

Phoenix LiveView & Real-Time (Module 5) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"Phoenix LiveView: Interactive, Real-Time Apps"	Chris McCord	The original LiveView demo that made the community lose its mind	35
"Phoenix LiveView Demystified"	Alex Garibay	How LiveView actually works under the hood -- diffs, sockets, lifecycle	40
"Building Interactive Apps with LiveView"	Sophie DeBenedetto	Practical LiveView patterns from the author of Programming Phoenix LiveView	40
"LiveView: Rich Client-Side Experience"	Chris McCord	ElixirConf keynote showing LiveView's latest capabilities	45
"Surface UI"	Marlus Saraiva	Component-based LiveView development -- like having ViewComponent but built-in	30

Advanced Elixir & Production (Module 6) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"Metaprogramming Elixir"	Chris McCord	Phoenix creator explains macros, the AST, and compile-time code generation	40
"A Practical Guide to Elixir Protocols"	Kevin Rockwood	Protocols vs behaviours -- when to use each, with real examples	30
"Monitoring Production Elixir"	Andrea Leopardi	What to observe in a running BEAM system -- telemetry, metrics, dashboards	35
"Debugging & Tracing Elixir Applications"	Luca Dei Zotti	Observer, :dbg, :recon -- tools that Rails has nothing equivalent to	30
"Thinking in Ecto"	Darin Wilson	Advanced Ecto patterns: multi tenancy, composable queries, Repo patterns	40

Distributed Systems & the BEAM Advantage (Module 7) #

Talk	Speaker	Why Watch	~Min
"The Road to LiveView: A Journey in Elixir Clustering"	Chris McCord	How Phoenix leverages distributed Erlang for real-time at scale	40
"Distributed Elixir Made Easy"	Johanna Larsson	libcluster, Horde, and CRDTs in Elixir -- practical distributed patterns	35
"Globally Distributed Elixir"	Jeff Weiss	Running Elixir across regions with Fly.io -- deploy topology and tradeoffs	35
"CRDT: Conflict-free Replicated Data Types"	Piotr Szotkowski	CRDTs explained with Elixir implementations	40
"Scaling Elixir"	Various (Code BEAM)	Search Code BEAM channel -- multiple talks on scaling BEAM systems in production	35

YouTube Channels #

Channel	What You Get	Subscribe?
ElixirConf	Official US conference talks. Largest archive of Elixir talks.	Yes
Code Sync / Code BEAM	European Erlang/Elixir conference. More BEAM-deep, more Erlang heritage.	Yes
Alchemist Camp	Project-based tutorials. Paid course -- use alongside Modules 1, 4, 5.	Optional (paid)
Groxio (Dave Thomas)	Dave Thomas' channel. Short, focused, opinionated.	Yes
Elixir Mentor	Beginner-friendly walkthroughs. Good for Module 0-1.	Optional
Pragmatic Studio	Paid course content. Elixir & OTP video course.	Optional (paid)
Honeypot	Tech documentaries. Their Elixir mini-doc is excellent.	Optional

Podcasts #

Podcast	Frequency	Best For	Start With
Thinking Elixir	Weekly	News, community updates, interviews. Best ongoing pulse.	Any recent episode
Elixir Wizards (SmartLogic)	Biweekly	Themed seasons -- production Elixir, LiveView, careers.	Season on "Production"
BEAM Radio	Weekly	Broader BEAM ecosystem -- Erlang, Gleam, LFE, not just Elixir.	Joe Armstrong tribute episodes
Elixir Outlaws	Irregular	Casual, opinionated, funny. Two experienced Elixir devs chatting.	Any episode
EMx (Elixir Mix)	Weekly	Interview format. Guest deep-dives on libraries, patterns, war stories.	Episode with Jose Valim

Listen during commute or gym. One episode per week minimum keeps you in the ecosystem's mental model even on weeks you do not code.

Module Pairing Guide #

Quick reference: the single must-watch talk per module.

Module	Must-Watch Talk	Speaker	~Min
0 -- FP Foundations	"Railway Oriented Programming"	Scott Wlaschin	60
1 -- Elixir Language	"Elixir -- A Modern Approach to Programming for the Erlang VM"	Jose Valim	45
2 -- OTP	"The Soul of Erlang and Elixir"	Sasa Juric	45
3 -- Erlang & BEAM	"The Mess We're In"	Joe Armstrong	45
4 -- Phoenix	"Phoenix Is Not Your Application"	Lance Halvorsen	35
5 -- LiveView	"Phoenix LiveView: Interactive, Real-Time Apps"	Chris McCord	35
6 -- Advanced	"Metaprogramming Elixir"	Chris McCord	40
7 -- Distributed	"The Road to LiveView: A Journey in Elixir Clustering"	Chris McCord	40

Total must-watch time: ~345 minutes (~5.75 hours)

India Streaming Notes #

All conference talks listed here are free on YouTube. No VPN needed, no geo-restrictions.
ElixirConf and Code BEAM channels upload full talks within weeks of the conference.
Podcasts available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts -- all free in India.
YouTube Premium is worth it in India (INR 149/month) for background play during commute.
Download talks for offline viewing on your commute or flights.
Time zone note: live streams from US conferences (ElixirConf) are typically 8:30 PM - 2 AM IST. Code BEAM (EU) is more friendly at 1:30 PM - 9 PM IST.

Viewing Schedule Suggestion #

Phase	What to Watch	Hours/Week
Weeks 1-4 (Module 0-1)	FP paradigm talks + Jose Valim origin talks	1-2 hrs
Weeks 5-10 (Module 2-3)	Sasa Juric + Joe Armstrong (the emotional core)	2 hrs
Weeks 11-18 (Module 4-5)	Chris McCord Phoenix/LiveView talks	1-2 hrs
Weeks 19-30 (Module 6-7)	Advanced + distributed talks as needed	1 hr
Ongoing	One podcast episode per week	0.5-1 hr

Do not binge. Watch one talk, then code. The talks land differently after you have struggled with the concepts yourself.

Elixir/Phoenix Community Guide #

Companion resource for the 8-module Elixir/Phoenix curriculum. Organized in tiers so you know what to use now vs. later.

How to Use This Guide #

Tier	When	What
Start Here	Modules 0-2	ElixirForum, Exercism, Elixir School, Thinking Elixir podcast
Go Deeper	Modules 3-5	Core repos, OTP books, conference talks, Fly.io blog
Stay Current	Ongoing	Newsletters, Twitter/X, podcasts, YouTube channels
Job Search	When ready	Job boards, Elixir Companies list, community networking

Newsletters #

Newsletter	Notes
Elixir Radar	Originally Plataformatec, now Dashbit. The OG newsletter.
Elixir Weekly	Curated weekly links, concise format.
Elixir Digest	Community-driven roundup of articles and releases.
BEAM Weekly	Covers Elixir, Erlang, and the broader BEAM ecosystem.
Thinking Elixir Newsletter	Companion to the podcast. Good mix of news and opinion.

Recommendation: Subscribe to Elixir Radar and Thinking Elixir first. Add others once you are actively building.

Podcasts #

Podcast	Status	Notes
Thinking Elixir	Active	The most consistently active Elixir podcast. Short episodes, great for commutes.
Elixir Outlaws	Intermittent	Casual, opinionated. Good for understanding community culture.
Elixir Wizards	Active	Produced by SmartLogic. Season-based themes. Well-produced.
BEAM Radio	Active	Broader BEAM ecosystem including Erlang, Gleam, LFE.
Elixir Mix / EMx	Ended	Archives still valuable. Panel format similar to Ruby Rogues.
Elixir Newbie	Ended	Excellent for beginners. Archived episodes cover common stumbling points.

As a Rails engineer: Start with Thinking Elixir. The hosts frequently reference Rails comparisons, which will help you map concepts.

YouTube Channels #

Channel	Content
ElixirConf	Full conference talks from ElixirConf US and EU. Hundreds of hours.
Code Sync / Code BEAM	BEAM conference talks. More Erlang-heavy but excellent OTP content.
Alchemist Camp	Project-based tutorials. Great for learning Phoenix by building things.
Elixir Mentor	Shorter, focused tutorials on specific topics.
Groxio	Dave Thomas (yes, the Pragmatic Programmer). Deep dives into OTP and thinking in Elixir.
Elixir Casts	Short screencasts, similar to RailsCasts format.

Must-watch talks for a Rails engineer:

Chris McCord: "Phoenix - The Road to 2 Million Websocket Connections" (why Phoenix exists)
Jose Valim: "Elixir - A Modern Approach to Programming" (the origin story)
Sasa Juric: "The Soul of Erlang and Elixir" (the best OTP talk ever made)
Chris McCord: Any LiveView keynote (the future of server-rendered interactivity)

Twitter/X Accounts #

Must Follow #

Handle	Who	Why
@josevalim	Jose Valim	Elixir creator. Former Rails core team. His journey from Rails to Elixir mirrors yours.
@chris_mccord	Chris McCord	Phoenix and LiveView creator. Announces all major releases here.
@sasajuric	Sasa Juric	Author of Elixir in Action. Shares deep OTP insights.
@sorentwo	Parker Selbert	Oban creator (the Sidekiq of Elixir). Great systems thinking.

Worth Following #

Handle	Who	Why
@whatyouhide	Andrea Leopardi	Elixir core team. Mint HTTP client author.
@lexmag	Aleksei Magusev	Elixir core team.
@maboroshi	Devon Estes	Performance testing, community building.
@brooklinmyers	Brooklin Myers	DockYard Academy creator. Education-focused.
@wojtekmach	Wojtek Mach	Elixir core team. Req HTTP client, mix installer.
@joeerl	Joe Armstrong	Erlang creator (memorial account). His papers and talks remain essential reading.

Note for you: Jose Valim was literally on the Rails core team before creating Elixir. He solved the exact pain points you have felt in Rails (concurrency, fault tolerance, real-time). Follow his thinking.

Blogs and Publications #

Tier 1 -- Read Regularly #

Blog	Why
Dashbit Blog	Jose Valim's company. Authoritative on Elixir direction and best practices.
Fly.io Elixir Blog	Excellent production-focused articles. Chris McCord works at Fly.io.
Underjord (Lars Wikman)	Practical, opinionated, well-written. Lars explains BEAM concepts clearly.
The Erlangelist (Sasa Juric)	Deep dives into OTP patterns. Less frequent but every post is worth reading.

Tier 2 -- Reference and Learning #

Blog	Why
Dockyard Blog	Large Elixir consultancy. Mix of tutorials and case studies.
Elixir School	Community-maintained lessons. Good for filling gaps in specific topics.
AppSignal Elixir Blog	Monitoring company. Practical articles on performance and debugging.
Curiosum Blog	Polish Elixir consultancy. Thorough technical articles.

Forums and Chat #

Community	Type	Notes
ElixirForum.com	Forum	THE community hub. Extremely welcoming. Jose Valim answers questions personally. Nothing like this exists in Rails-land.
Erlang Forums	Forum	For when you go deeper into OTP and BEAM internals.
Elixir Slack	Chat	Active, many channels by topic. Good for quick questions.
Erlang Slack	Chat	Smaller, more focused on VM-level topics.
Elixir Discord	Chat	Growing community. More beginner-friendly than Slack.

Start here: ElixirForum.com. Create an account in Module 0. Post your questions there. The community is remarkably patient with newcomers, especially those coming from Rails.

Conferences #

Primary Conferences #

Conference	Location	Notes
ElixirConf US	US (varies)	The flagship. Best for networking and job leads.
ElixirConf EU	Europe (varies)	Strong European Elixir community.
Code BEAM US	US	Broader BEAM ecosystem. More Erlang, Gleam, academic content.
Code BEAM EU	Europe	Same as above, European edition.
Code BEAM Lite	Various cities	Smaller, single-day events. Lower cost, more accessible.

Regional Conferences #

Conference	Notes
Lonestar ElixirConf	Texas-based. Friendly, smaller community feel.
GigCity Elixir	Chattanooga, TN. Growing regional conference.
The Big Elixir	New Orleans. Good mix of talks and workshops.
EMPEX (Empire City Elixir)	NYC-based. Single-track, high quality.

If you are remote or far from the conference circuit: Watch conference talks on YouTube first. Code BEAM Lite occasionally happens outside the US and Europe, and regional editions are worth watching for.

Open Source Projects to Study #

Core -- Read These Source Files #

Project	Rails Equivalent	Why Study It
Phoenix Framework	Rails	The web framework. Read the router, controller, and channel code.
Phoenix LiveView	Hotwire/Turbo (but more powerful)	Server-rendered real-time UI. This is Phoenix's killer feature.
Ecto	ActiveRecord	Database wrapper and query builder. Deliberately NOT an ORM.
Plug	Rack	HTTP middleware. Simple, composable.
Mix	Rake + Bundler	Build tool, task runner, dependency manager. All in one.

Essential Libraries #

Library	Rails Equivalent	Why It Matters
Oban	Sidekiq	Background jobs. PostgreSQL-backed. No Redis needed. Study its use of GenServer and supervision.
Broadway	(no direct equivalent)	Data ingestion and processing pipelines. Built on GenStage.
Nx	(none)	Numerical computing. Jose Valim's ML project. Tensor operations in Elixir.
Livebook	(none, think Jupyter)	Interactive notebooks for Elixir. Great for learning and prototyping.
Nerves	(none)	IoT framework. Elixir on embedded devices. Shows BEAM's versatility.
Ash Framework	(none, maybe Trailblazer)	Declarative application framework. Opinionated resource modeling.
Absinthe	graphql-ruby	GraphQL toolkit. Well-designed, good example of macro usage.
Tesla	Faraday / HTTParty	HTTP client with middleware architecture.
ExUnit	RSpec / Minitest	Testing framework. Built into Elixir. No external dependency needed.

Infrastructure Equivalents #

Need	Rails World	Elixir World
Background jobs	Sidekiq, Solid Queue	Oban
Caching	Rails.cache, Redis	Nebulex, Cachex (in-memory, distributed)
Authentication	Devise	phx_gen_auth (built-in generator, no gem)
Mailer	Action Mailer	Swoosh
File uploads	Active Storage	(no dominant solution, various libraries)
Admin panel	ActiveAdmin, RailsAdmin	Kaffy, LiveAdmin
Pagination	Kaminari, Pagy	Scrivener, Flop
Search	Ransack, pg_search	(typically raw Ecto queries or Meilisearch)

Job Boards #

Board	Notes
ElixirJobs.net	Dedicated Elixir job board. Smaller but focused.
Elixir Radar Jobs	Jobs section of the Elixir Radar newsletter.
Elixir Companies	List of companies using Elixir. Research targets, then apply directly.
ElixirForum Jobs	Job postings on the forum. Companies post here to reach the community.
Functional Works	Functional programming jobs. Elixir, Haskell, Scala, Clojure.

Job search reality: The Elixir job market is smaller than Rails but growing. Remote-friendly roles are common because the community is globally distributed. Your Rails experience is a strong selling point -- many Elixir companies actively seek Rails engineers making the transition.

Books Worth Knowing About #

Essential Reading #

Book	Author	Why
Elixir in Action, 3rd Ed	Sasa Juric	THE comprehensive Elixir book. Covers OTP deeply. If you read one book, this is it.
Designing Elixir Systems with OTP	James Gray, Bruce Tate	How to think about OTP design. Layer architecture for Elixir apps.
Programming Phoenix LiveView	Bruce Tate, Sophie DeBenedetto	The LiveView book. Essential once you reach Module 5.

Deep Dives #

Book	Author	Why
Concurrent Data Processing in Elixir	Svilen Gospodinov	GenStage, Flow, Broadway. For when you build data pipelines.
Testing Elixir	Andrea Leopardi, Jeffrey Matthias	Testing patterns and strategies. By an Elixir core team member.
Metaprogramming Elixir	Chris McCord	Macros and compile-time code generation. Advanced but illuminating.
Real-Time Phoenix	Stephen Bussey	Channels, Presence, LiveView for real-time features.

You do not need to buy these immediately. The three video courses from the curriculum (Pragmatic Studio, Alchemist Camp, Coding Gnome) cover Modules 0-4. Books become valuable from Module 5 onward when you want depth in OTP and system design.

Learning Platforms #

Free Resources #

Platform	What It Offers
Exercism Elixir Track	95+ exercises with mentoring. Excellent for drilling syntax and patterns.
Elixir School	Structured lessons covering all major topics. Community-maintained.
HexDocs	Official documentation. Elixir's docs are famously good.
DockYard Academy	Full free curriculum. More structured than Elixir School.
Livebook	Interactive notebooks. Install locally and experiment.

Paid Courses (from the curriculum) #

Platform	Role in the Curriculum
Pragmatic Studio	Modules 0-2. Structured video course with exercises.
Alchemist Camp	Modules 2-4. Project-based, builds real Phoenix apps.
Coding Gnome (Dave Thomas)	Modules 3-5. Deep OTP and thinking-in-processes content.
Groxio	Dave Thomas's newer platform. Supplements Coding Gnome.

The Rails-to-Elixir Community Bridge #

These people and resources specifically address the Rails-to-Elixir transition:

Resource	Why It Matters
Jose Valim's Rails background	He was Rails core. He built Elixir to solve Rails' problems. His talks explain the "why."
Fly.io blog posts	Chris McCord (at Fly.io) frequently compares Phoenix and Rails approaches.
"Phoenix is Not Rails" talks	Multiple conference talks address this. Watch them early to reset mental models.
DockYard	Consultancy that transitioned from Ember/Rails to Elixir. Many blog posts about the journey.
Plataformatec legacy	Jose's original company. Their old blog posts document early Elixir design decisions.

Your advantage: Years of Rails experience give you a strong foundation in web development patterns, MVC, database design, testing, and deployment. The Elixir community values Rails refugees because you understand the problems Elixir solves. You do not need to pretend Rails experience does not exist -- it is an asset.

Community Culture Notes #

Things that will feel different coming from Rails:

The community is smaller and more cohesive. Core team members answer forum questions. This does not happen in Rails.
"Let it crash" is a philosophy, not negligence. OTP supervision trees handle failures. You will need to unlearn defensive programming habits.
Functional programming is not academic here. The community is practical and production-focused. Nobody will lecture you about monads.
Documentation is a first-class concern. Elixir has @doc and @moduledoc built into the language. Hex packages are expected to have good docs.
The hiring market rewards depth. Fewer jobs but less competition. Companies hiring Elixir engineers tend to pay well and value craft.
India has a growing BEAM community. Look for local meetups in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune. Code BEAM Lite has been hosted in India.

Quick Start Checklist #

Do these in your first week (Module 0):

Create an ElixirForum.com account
Subscribe to Elixir Radar and Thinking Elixir newsletters
Follow @josevalim and @chris_mccord on Twitter/X
Watch "The Soul of Erlang and Elixir" by Sasa Juric (YouTube, ~45 min)
Start the Exercism Elixir track (first 5 exercises)
Install Livebook and run your first notebook
Bookmark HexDocs and Elixir School

Last updated: April 2026 Companion to: ELIXIR_PHOENIX_MASTERY_CURRICULUM.md