Which pro­gram­ming language should you learn? A practical guide

Classic pro­gram­ming languages such as Python, JavaS­cript or C++ are some of the most popular for good reason. Nev­er­the­less, the range of new pro­gram­ming languages continues to grow. Our practical and com­pre­hens­ive guide reveals which pro­gram­ming languages offer some of the best job op­por­tun­it­ies and salary prospects.

A huge number of pro­gram­ming languages exists. New languages and ex­ten­sions for existing languages are added each year. Because pro­gram­ming languages evolve with tech­no­logy, supply and demand are rising. Which pro­gram­ming language you choose has a major impact on career paths and job as­sign­ments. A com­pre­hens­ive overview is a good way to answer a few questions such as: Which pro­gram­ming languages are easy to learn? Which ones are in demand? Which new languages offer future op­por­tun­it­ies and which have good earnings potential?

First things first, you don’t need to restrict yourself to just one pro­gram­ming language. In principle, it’s a good idea for pro­gram­mers and de­velopers to learn several languages. Bjarne Strous­trup, the creator of C++, says in The 5 Pro­gram­ming Languages You Need To Know that pro­fes­sion­al de­velopers should master five internet pro­gram­ming languages. They are C++, Java, Python, Ruby and C#. But that was in 2011. A lot has happened since then.

It’s difficult to say how many one should learn. It’s best not to mix too many languages for web projects in order to avoid un­ne­ces­sary re­fact­or­ing due to messy code. Nev­er­the­less, it’s be­ne­fi­cial to know more than one and, depending on time, re­quire­ments and goals, at least three pro­gram­ming languages.

For beginners, pro­gram­ming languages C, C++, Java, JavaS­cript, PHP, HTML, CSS and Python are re­l­at­ively easy to learn.

C forms the basis for C++. If you’ve already mastered C, you can easily continue to use the same syntax for C++. These are im­per­at­ive, pro­ced­ur­al languages for system-oriented pro­gram­ming, which are used primarily within server and desktop pro­gram­ming and hardware-oriented, local programs. Standard Unix programs and kernels of operating systems were pro­grammed in C languages. They’re suitable for common platforms such as Windows, Linux and Mac. C++, unlike C, is more object-oriented. Both are widely used in the Internet of Things and are a good basis for learning pro­gram­ming.

Java is even easier to learn than C and C++. As a versatile, object-oriented and easy-to-use pro­gram­ming language, it can be used platform-in­de­pend­ently. It supports multi-threading, is secure and clearly struc­tured. It’s used for pro­gram­ming Android mobile ap­plic­a­tions, desktop apps, games and service-oriented ap­plic­a­tions.

JavaS­cript is actually not a pro­gram­ming language, but an object-oriented scripting language for browser ap­plic­a­tions, in­ter­act­ive websites, website an­im­a­tions, social media feeds, or features like in­ter­act­ive maps. It doesn’t require a de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment, but uses seamless browser in­teg­ra­tion. All you need is a text editor and a browser.

Alongside JavaS­cript, HTML and CSS, PHP is one of the most important languages for web pro­gram­ming. If you learn PHP, you’ll gain the necessary skills for pro­gram­ming web apps, games, and re­spons­ive design. The PHP community is huge and existing frame­works for general or industry-specific ap­plic­a­tions are diverse. But the language is more com­plic­ated than JavaS­cript.

If you know CSS and learn HTML, you’re all set for pro­gram­ming website front ends. The two languages are con­sidered standard in web de­vel­op­ment and should be part of the web pro­gram­mer’s rep­er­toire. They have clean code and provide broad browser support. Together with JavaS­cript and PHP, this provides the optimal, easy-to-learn found­a­tion for web de­vel­op­ment.

Python offers a clear, easy-to-read, object-oriented pro­gram­ming style. It’s dynamic, versatile and has many pros for web backend pro­gram­ming. The code is similar to natural language. Python is easy to learn for beginners. It’s always in great demand, par­tic­u­larly within AI and machine learning.

Globally, JavaS­cript is the most widely used code on the Internet. Most web browsers rely on it. This language is practical and versatile for web de­vel­op­ment. Hot on the heels of JavaS­cript are Python, Java, HTML/CSS, and C#. Python and Java are the pro­gram­ming languages most fre­quently taught at US uni­ver­sit­ies. However, such rankings tend to change annually depending on stat­ist­ics and surveys

Stat­ist­ic­ally, employers tend to look for pro­gram­mers who know classic pro­gram­ming languages such as Java, JavaS­cript, Python, C++ and C. The degree of spe­cial­isa­tion and frequency also determine how in demand a pro­gram­ming language is. For example, func­tion­al pro­gram­ming is less common, but has many pros for companies due to its benefits for concrete data pro­cessing, business logic, AI, compilers and parsers, and ap­plic­a­tion al­gorithms.

In addition to versatile standard pro­gram­ming languages, Clojure is in high demand as a func­tion­al pro­gram­ming language among larger companies. Therefore, de­velopers who know Clojure tend to be very well paid. As a Lisp dialect, Clojure provides a func­tion­al, readable coding style for even complex al­gorithms. It runs in the Java Virtual Machine and offers tight Java runtime in­teg­ra­tion. Because of its dynamic design, Clojure supports flexible Java in­ter­ac­tion. The language tends to be more in demand in the financial sector, retail, analytics and ad­vert­ising. Scala is a powerful Java al­tern­at­ive that’s highly sought-after for backend de­vel­op­ment.

In­dic­a­tions of the pop­ular­ity of a pro­gram­ming language are provided by the PYPL lead index. This shows how often a pro­gram­ming language or tutorials for a pro­gram­ming language are searched for on Google. In 2021, Python ranked top with 30.3%, closely followed by Java, JavaS­cript and C languages such as C# and C/C++.

New and promising pro­gram­ming languages focus primarily on optimal user ex­per­i­ence design and high-quality, graphical user in­ter­faces. Many spe­cial­ise in web de­vel­op­ment or mobile ap­plic­a­tion de­vel­op­ment. Promising languages include:

Kotlin ranked 14th among the most used cross-platform pro­gram­ming language in 2021. It’s used for both the Java Virtual Machine and JavaS­cript source code. In 2017, Google declared Kotlin the main language for app de­vel­op­ment on Android, alongside Java. It offers zero security and a sim­pli­fied syntax compared to Java. Kotlin is suitable for native Android and iOS apps, mobile platforms, server-side, and web front-end de­vel­op­ment.

The object-oriented, func­tion­al pro­gram­ming language Scala offers sim­pli­fied syntax and higher-order functions. It proves to be a slimmed-down, leaner Java al­tern­at­ive and is con­sidered a general-purpose language. Areas of ap­plic­a­tion include data pipelines, event-based ap­plic­a­tions, mi­croservices or ETL. For back-end de­vel­op­ment, Scala is proving to be a lucrative skill.

TypeScript was published in 2012. As a typed su­per­class, it builds on JavaS­cript which makes it a useful addition to the popular pro­gram­ming language. With a little prior knowledge of JavaS­cript, it’s easy to fa­mil­i­ar­ise yourself with TypeScript. Broad browser com­pat­ib­il­ity is a given since TypeScript can be trans­piled into JavaS­cript. TypeScript is a worth­while JavaS­cript sup­ple­ment. Libraries from Angular, React and Svelte rely on TypeScript. Its pros are clean, lean code and stream­lined de­vel­op­ment processes.

Dart was developed by Google as a JavaS­cript al­tern­at­ive for modern web browsers. The language is ECMA-stand­ard­ised and fa­cil­it­ates the pro­gram­ming of mobile ap­plic­a­tions thanks to its simple syntax. It can be used across platforms and browsers and quickly trans­lated into JavaS­cript. Google’s Software De­vel­op­ment Kit Flutter and marketing tools such as Google Ads and Groupon are also based on Dart. The free DartPad platform makes it easy to get going.

Swift is a strong al­tern­at­ive to Objective-C, the pro­gram­ming language for iOS and macOS apps. It in­teg­rates seam­lessly with Objective-C code and offers simple, modern syntax for mobile app de­vel­op­ment and user ex­per­i­ence as a lean, object-oriented pro­gram­ming language.

‘Go’ is an ab­bre­vi­ation for the pro­gram­ming language Golang, which was developed by Google as an al­tern­at­ive to C++ and Java. It em­phas­izes cloud computing and can be used across platforms with sim­pli­fied syntax, automatic memory man­age­ment and easy import process. Other benefits include automatic code cor­rec­tion, con­sist­ent code format­ting and a large standard library. Demand for Golang is high within the en­ter­prise and server sectors. As such, it offers good career op­por­tun­it­ies due to the re­l­at­ively small supply of Go de­velopers.

The Mozilla pro­gram­ming language Rust convinces with hardware-oriented pro­gram­ming for web apps, network ap­plic­a­tions, web assembly or command line tools. It combines different pro­gram­ming paradigms and provides strong ab­strac­tion and a func­tion­al typing system for memory man­age­ment. This makes it easier to work around stack overflow and null pointer issues. With AWS, Microsoft and Meta col­lab­or­at­ing on Rust, its prospects are very good.

The pop­ular­ity of pro­gram­ming languages doesn’t determine how lucrative they are. To check salary prospects, de­velopers can monitor annual analyses of salaries for various pro­gram­ming languages. These are published in the Stack Overflow Survey, among others. According to Stack, the following pro­gram­ming languages were as­so­ci­ated with some of the top salaries in 2021:

• Clojure: around £80,000
• F#: around £70,000
• Elixir: around £70,000

High salaries can be expected for pro­gram­ming languages with a high degree of spe­cial­isa­tion. Func­tion­al pro­gram­ming languages such as Clojure, F# and Elixir are in high demand because they’ve got several pros for data analysis, e.g. in the financial sector. Compared to Python and Java, only a few de­velopers have mastered them. While F# serves as a pro­gram­ming language for the .NET framework, Elixir runs as an all-round language on the Erlang virtual machine.

However, bear in mind that a spe­cial­ised focus reduces flex­ib­il­ity. Pos­sib­il­it­ies of ap­plic­a­tion are wider for those who have mastered versatile languages such as Java or Python. At the same time, widely used pro­gram­ming languages may not be quite as lucrative because the com­pet­i­tion is greater.

The choice of pro­gram­ming language depends on trends and forecasts. There are four major trends within pro­gram­ming languages (as of September 2022):

Func­tion­al pro­gram­ming enables more elegant, easier to read, and therefore cleaner code for complex data analysis. It’s worth expanding your knowledge of func­tion­al pro­gram­ming languages like Clojure or Elixir.

Current de­vel­op­ments are trending towards cloud-based en­vir­on­ments in which code can be written, stored, and executed are the future.

One of the most important areas in applying pro­gram­ming languages are self-learning systems. The pro is that programs optimise them­selves through machine learning. Important pro­gram­ming languages for AI research and machine learning are Python, Scala, Java, JavaS­cript, C++ and newer high-per­form­ance pro­gram­ming languages like Julia that focus on numerical com­pu­ta­tion.

Another trend is the sim­pli­fic­a­tion of pro­gram­ming languages in the form of no-code de­vel­op­ment and visual pro­gram­ming languages such as Scratch. No-code de­vel­op­ment using editors based on WYSIWIG enables beginners without any pro­gram­ming skills to develop websites and ap­plic­a­tions. The same is true for visual languages that rely on graphical elements rather than code. These are popular for pro­gram­ming for kids.

Textual pro­gram­ming languages or coding skills aren’t becoming obsolete. On the contrary, the demand for software de­velopers and pro­gram­mers continues to grow, because the de­vel­op­ment of no-code tools or visual languages also requires ‘classical’ pro­gram­ming.

Here’s an overview of the most important areas of ap­plic­a­tion and cor­res­pond­ing pro­gram­ming languages.

• JavaS­cript
• Java
• PHP
• CSS
• HTML
• Python
• C / C++ / C#

• MySQL
• SQL
• C / C++ / C#
• Java
• PHP
• R

• Java
• Kotlin
• C / C++ / C#
• Python
• HTML / CSS / JavaS­cript
• Dart
• Swift

• Python
• C++
• Java
• Scala
• JavaS­cript / TypeScript
• Rust
• Clojure
• Elixir
• Julia
• Go

• Python
• R
• Java
• SQL

• Python
• C#
• Java
• JavaS­cript
• Ruby

• Python
• Scala
• Java
• JavaS­cript
• C++