Programming has become an increasingly important skill set that is continuously in demand by many organisations. With over 200 programming languages available, it can be overwhelming for a young developer to choose which language to start learning.

Before signing up for any kind of coding bootcamp or course, you should consider certain factors such as the language’s difficulty level, your existing programming language capabilities, and how easily you can pick up newer languages, as well as how you would apply your newfound programming language skills. This is because different programming languages offer different functions from helping you develop mobile applications, to websites and software.

With that in mind, here are the top 8 programming languages we recommend you start learning today.

Table of Contents

1. Python

Python is a great choice of language to learn for people starting out in the world of programming due to its simple, easy-to-read syntax. It is an open-source and free programming language that also offers support modules, community development, and is a go-to choice for machine learning and deep learning applications.

Its versatility also makes it one of the more popular languages today since it can be used for small and highly complex tasks alike, from scripting, and software engineering, to running servers or conducting data analysis.

2. Java

Created in 1995, Java remains one of the more widely used programming languages of all time due to its powerful applications in developing complex systems and applications, such as Android applications, web applications, and enterprise software. Support by frameworks such as Spring (used in some of the biggest companies) have helped to keep Java popular despite the advent of more recent languages such as Kotlin.

Due to its Write Once, Run Anywhere (WORA) capabilities, Java allows applications to be used on any platform, regardless of whether it is on Windows, Android, iOS or Mac, and is well known for its portability across different platforms.

Used in big data as well as the development of web and applications, big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, YouTube and Twitter also make use of Java on their respective websites’ backend.

Learning Java also offers you a decent foundation for other object-oriented programming languages.

3. JavaScript

While Java and JavaScript have some similarities, they are two distinct programming languages. JavaScript can be considered the most in-demand programming language in the developer job market for the last two years. It is also a core client-side programming language that is used by 98.3% of all websites.

As a language that is used to develop dynamic, interactive web applications, as well as in front-end development to create web pages that have interactive elements, JavaScript is a crucial language to pick up if you are keen on getting started in any form of web development.

4. C++

C++ is an enhanced version of C, which is one of the oldest and most popular programming languages that formed the basis of other languages like Java, JavaScript and C#. Used to develop high-performance applications and operating systems, C++ is a powerful and complex language to learn. Despite its difficulty, it is a valuable language to know if you are looking to get involved in gaming, robots, and embedded systems.

This language is widely used to develop applications where performance is a priority, such as video games, and is used by big names such as Firefox and Adobe.

It contains regular additions and improvements to the language which keeps it popular among developers.

5. Ruby

One of the relatively simpler programming languages to pick up is Ruby, which was developed in the 1990s and is characterised by its more user-friendly syntax. It is an easy language to write in and an easy language to learn with a less steep learning curve, meaning that you can pick it up quite quickly. Due to this, Ruby has a large community of developers who can offer support in case you run into any issues, and a popular choice among beginner developers.

Ruby is widely used in the web framework Ruby on Rails and used by top tech companies such as GitHub, Twitter, and Crunchbase.

6. Swift

Swift was created by Apple in 2014 and is used to develop Linux and Mac applications. It is an open-source programming language and has a modern, easy-to-understand syntax which makes it easy to learn and requires fewer coding abilities compared to other languages.

It is a language you must learn if you are keen on developing mobile applications for Apple devices and iOS applications such as Firefox, SoundCloud and WordPress.

7. SQL

If you are involved in data analysis and database management, SQL is a language you can consider picking up. As a standard database query language, it functions to access and manipulate data in databases and is most widely used for this purpose.

Despite its steep learning curve, it is widely used in web applications, data warehouses, and e-commerce applications and offers many pros such as enhanced performance, higher data integrity, and easily accessible data manipulation.

8. R

R is an open-source language that is mainly used for processing statistics, linear and nonlinear modelling, calculation, testing, to visualisation and analysis. Using R to code applications allows them to interface with other databases and process structured and unstructured data.

Despite being a challenging language to pick up, particularly for beginners, its active community of developers can be a tremendous help for anyone learning this programming language.

Conclusion

With the hundreds of programming languages out there, we hope this guide can offer greater clarity for you in deciding which language to pick up this year. Regardless of what you choose, it is important to consider what your purpose is behind learning a programming language, what applications you would require out of a language, as well as the level of difficulty in learning them.

Backend Technology Interview Questions

1. Python

2. Java

3. JavaScript

4. C++

5. Ruby

6. Swift

7. SQL

8. R

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