Ans: Distrust and mistrust are roughly the same. Both mean (1) lack of trust or (2) to regard without trust. But distrust is often based on experience or reliable information, while mistrust is often a general sense of unease toward someone or something.
They are alike because they both imply a lack of trust. They are different because mistrust means that you once trusted something, but you shouldn't have, while distrust means that you didn't trust something since the beginning.
