Hello guys, if you are a beginner and not sure which programming language to choose to start your career or a developer with some coding experience thinking to learn a new programming language in 2024 then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared 10 things Java programmers should learn in 2024, and today, I am going to share the 5 best programming languages beginners and intermediate developers can learn in 2024. Everybody loves a polyglot programmer and an all-rounder who is versatile enough to write a quick script and can also write complex Java programs. In fact, it's almost mandatory for a senior developer to learn more than one language.
Interviewers are giving more attention to an engineer who has good experience with multiple languages like C++ and Java go quite well, so is Python and Java. I personally like Software Engineers who have substantial experience in either C++ or Java and can write scripts in Groovy, Perl, or Python.
Many times a small script is quick and good enough for the ad-hoc task, and I don't want my programmer to spend a full day in Java to write a program to read CSV files or to grab a message from a TCP/UDP port.
Why I chose these five programming languages? My reasons are practical and straightforward. I have chosen languages based on their usage, paradigm, and popularity. For example, you cannot ignore Java if you want to do application development and looking for a Job. So is JavaScript, which is almost everywhere on the web.
C is the one language I strongly believe developers should learn at the very start of their career because it will help them to get closer to the system and understand key programming concepts, which are often hidden behind JVM or CLR.
Python is my choice of scripting language though you can also substitute with Perl or Groovy. Though when it comes to online support, Python is great. There are lots of python modules available that can do your job in a couple of minutes.
Similarly, learning an object-oriented and one functional programming language like Haskell or Scala will widen your thinking and programming sense. You will find more reasons to learn these top 5 programming languages in this article.
Top 5 Programming Languages Every Programmer Should Learn
Without Further Ado, here is my list of 5 programming languages that every programmer or software developer should try to learn. It contains a mix of languages like object-oriented, functional, scripting, language, which offer a low level of control, and language, which is widely used in server-side development.
1. Python
Python is one of the most taught languages in schools and colleges across the world. In the USA, Python has replaced Java from many academic courses as a preferred language to start with. What will you gain by learning Python? A lot.
Python is one of those languages that can be used as a scripting language as well as a proper object-oriented language for a large project.
Python is one of those languages that can be used as a scripting language as well as a proper object-oriented language for a large project.
Many popular websites, including Reddit, are built upon Python frameworks like Django. In recent times, many large organizations are switching to the Python-based framework as well.
I personally use Python for writing scripts, though, and it is beneficial for doing something quickly, like, you can write a UDP message listener in 5 minutes in Python as opposed to 20 minutes in Java, forget about compiling, packaging, and then using. Just write python scripts for ad-hoc tasks. If you are interested in learning Python, then The Complete Python BootCamp is an excellent place to start with.
If you are confused between Java and Python to start with, take a look at this infographic, which compares Java with Python.
2. Java
Java was started with a simple thought of WORA, "write once run anywhere," but over the period, Java actually ran everywhere.
You should learn Java to build a robust, scalable server-side application. You can create projects of any complexity in Java, it has tools, technology, and community to help with.
Why should you learn Java? You will learn how to focus on application design and code structuring without worrying about system-specific details and memory management. JVM will take care of it.
If you decide to learn Java, then The Complete Java Master Class on Udemy is a good course, to begin with. It covers all the essential concepts of Java in good detail.
Java is used by some of the most prominent organizations, like banks, insurance companies, and you can reach the masses by writing Android apps. If you are still not convinced, I suggest you check out these 10 reasons to learn Java.
3. C
You cannot be a programmer without knowing C or C++. This is a powerful statement, but I am saying this from my experience. Software engineers or developers who know C are simply better than programmers who don't know C, and it cannot be just plain coincident.It's one of those languages which you must know. I learned C during my academics and learned many key programming concepts along the way, like structure, array, pointers, memory management, etc.
The C is still the most preferred language for system programming, and it has given Java substantial competition at the top of the table for the last two years. If you want to learn this first language, then C Programming for Beginners is an excellent place to start with.
It is also one of the oldest mainstream languages, survived for more than 4 decades now.
4. JavaScript
You can replace Java with C++ and Python with Ruby in this list, but honestly, there is no replacement for JavaScript in today's world. In the last 5 years, JavaScript has totally dominated the world. It is no more the client-side scripting language; with the framework and libraries like node.js, Angular.js, and React.js, you can use JavaScript on the Server-side as well for user interface development.
Some parts of JavaScript's overwhelming success go to jQuery, which genuinely changed the way you use JavaScript on the client side. As a Java programmer, working on JSP and Servlet based applications, I have had numerous opportunities to use both jQuery and JavaScript.
Knowledge of this language has helped us to decide which feature should be implemented server-side and which can be handled at the client-side, like, many validations we used to do on the server-side were migrated to the client-side.
If you want to learn JavaScript from scratch and in-depth, then The Complete JavaScript course on Udemy is the best online course you can join.
5. Scala
Though there are many functional programming languages available, like, Haskell, I have chosen Scala because, as a Java developer, I found learning Scala is easy than learning Haskell.
Someone can take that as a challenge and learn Haskell as well, but for practical purposes, I think learning Scala is more relevant for Java developers.
For C++ programmers, Haskell makes more sense to me. To be honest, you can choose any functional programming language but choose one which has commercial demand.
As a professional developer, I prefer to invest my time in something which can be used in my career, and if you want to learn Scala, then Beginning Scala Programming is an excellent course, to begin with.
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Btw, no matter how many programming languages you learn, you must follow the coding and design principles given in Clean Code by heart to become a professional coder. It's those skill that helps you most in your programming career.
That's all on this list of the top 5 programming languages every software engineer should learn. Some of you might find the list as 5 programming languages Java developers should learn, which is also right. IMHO studying languages that offer different paradigms is the best way to improve your programming skills and help you to do your day-to-day tasks effectively.
Ideally, a programmer's toolset should include one language which is close to the system, like C or C++, one object-oriented language like Java, Python or C++, one functional programming language, like Scala or Haskell, one powerful scripting language like Perl, Python or Ruby, and JavaScript. Yes, there is no replacement for JavaScript.
Other Programming Articles you may like to explore
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- 10 Multithreading and Concurrency Best Practices for Java developers
Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these programming languages, then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback or any other programming language which you think every programmer should learn, then please share it with us.
Happy Learning!!
P. S. - I have read somewhere that programmers should learn a new programming language every year ( I think it's code complete, not sure, though), but if you cannot do so, I suggest at least learn the following five programming languages to do well in your career.
What about Tcl?
ReplyDelete"Tcl the misunderstood" (http://goo.gl/JQi8C)
@Diego, Sorry but never heard of it, What is the advantage of learning Tcl?
ReplyDelete1. Your English is rather poor for a blogger. Nothing personal, it just is. A blogger needs an in depth knowledge of grammar in order to write anything.
ReplyDelete2. JavaScript is not a programming language, it is a script language, there's a huge difference.
3. Knowing C will in no way help you know programming, you will get the same result by learning Pascal, ie. none. Understanding basic concepts of OOP will help you learn any programming language. In those terms, knowing C++ may help you a bit, but not very much, you would absolutely get more OOP understanding by learning Java or C# as your starting points.
4. Python is useless compared to Ruby and PHP, much much slower, harder to maintain and heavily not scalable enough.
Cheers
Probably wise to keep your post anonymous there, as it shows a distinct lack of understanding...
ReplyDelete1. Simply not true, many informative blogs have been authored by people whose first language is not English, but still manage to be informative and useful.
2. Simply wrong. JavaScript is Turing Complete, so definitely qualifies as a programming language. Wikipedia's first statement on JS is: "JavaScript is a high level, dynamic, untyped, and interpreted programming language." It is Turing-complete, so capable of expressing any program that may be expressed.
Now it is certainly not the best programming language, but that doesn't disqualify it alone.
3. Knowledge of C will be enormously beneficial to a programmer, as it is the de facto standard for interoperation between systems. Almost everything exposes an API that can be accessed via C. Most useful system-level programming is done in C or C++. Pascal will be a language you will never use in the real world.
4. Again, simply wrong. Python is in many ways a more elegant language than either of those you cite, and is widely used as the scripting language in products as diverse as text editors and 3D graphics (Blender). PHP is a "fractal of bad programming language design" - even worse than JS.
The new stars ( Swift, Golang) are not in the list !!
ReplyDeleteEspecially Golang is really worth to learn. Golang might be the successor of Java in the long term since it is fully opensource, compiles quickly, has superior module system, better oops concepts (no inheritance but composition ).
@Javin - IMO there are two (positive) reasons a language could be notable; your list seems to be focused of the second type: useful ones. Would you agree?
ReplyDelete1) languages that teach a programmer insights, methods or novel ways to look at programming -- whether or not useful in practical uses, and
2) languages that are powerful, flexible and practical enough to be useful for real applications; ones to know to get things accomplished, or to get a job.
Of course, some fit into both categories.
@anonymous [1-Sep-15] - Rob G is completely right on every count.
3. Re-read Javin's comment that starts with "C is the one language I..." this is very, very true. For C, even beyond inter-op, I would say (and knowledgeable hiring managers probably agree) that if you can't grok C then your versatility, depth and usefulness as a programmer is limited. Whether you apply it or not, the insights needed to be a decent/good C programmer will transfer and make you better overall.
4. Anyone who doesn't know Python is considerably less useful to me, although I agree it's not that performant. But for PHP and Ruby -- when I'm looking at a FOSS project and see that it's written in Ruby or PHP I would probably dismiss it and keep looking. My experience leads me to believe that (1) PHP is dying and (2) Ruby is the new Visual Basic - used by those with limited experience and insufficient attention to quality.
@Javin, @Diego - TCL was very useful, but I wouldn't put it on the top 10; it's kind of tedious to use. We used to use it as a testing framework for a complex C product; since TCL pretty easy to get bindings for C code and test it that way. I wish Python could link to C code more easily.
@Anonymous, completely agree, when I chose the language their practical usefulness, importance in career and job is also a big consideration. Since its never a case that you would be working on only one language, being polyglot helps a lot in career and these 5 languages covers most of software development.
ReplyDeleteHow would you validate data if user disables javascript or use tools like postman or jmeter?
ReplyDeleteI will not remove server side validation. Client side validation is just complementary.
How much day to become games development?
ReplyDeleteWhat about html
ReplyDeleteHTML is a good skill but you can't really call it a programming language, its a markup language based used to build structure for a web page.
ReplyDeleteI have Started learning C as my first Programming Language so can u suggest me the next Language which I should learn or any other suggestion...
ReplyDeleteIf you started with C then I suggest to go for either C++, Java, or C# as next programming language
ReplyDeletethis article is helpful
ReplyDeleteThank you moto, glad you find this article useful, btw, which programming language are you going to learn this year?
ReplyDeleteI agree, Java been a end to end development tool is quite better for beginner developers. Commercial Webapps are developed in Java thus learning it is good!
ReplyDelete