If you’re brand-new to the field of software development, the most challenging part of learning programming is deciding where to begin. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of programming languages in widespread use, each with its complexities and idiosyncrasies.
The good news is that as you start your journey as a software developer, you’ll begin to discover which programming language will be most fitting for you, your interests, and your career goals.
Let’s go over the best and most in-demand programming languages for several of the most common use cases, including web development, mobile development, recreation development, and more.
Swift: If you’re interested in Apple products and mobile app development, Swift is an excellent place to start. First announced by Apple in 2014, Swift is a relatively new programming language used to develop iOS and macOS applications. Swift has been optimized for performance and built from the ground up to match the realities of modern iOS development. Not only does iOS run on every iPhone and iPad, but it’s also the basis for other operating systems such as watchOS (for Apple Watches) and tvOS (for Apple TVs). In addition, Apple isn’t going anywhere as a tech industry leader, and iOS apps continue to be the most profitable in the mobile app marketplace.
JavaScript: JavaScript is necessary for front-end web development along with HTML and CSS. A majority of the web’s most popular sites, from Facebook and Twitter to Gmail and YouTube, rely on JavaScript to create interactive web pages and dynamically display content to users. JavaScript is primarily a front-end language run on the browser. It can be used on the server-side through Node.js to build scalable network applications. Node.js is compatible with Linux, SunOS, Mac OS X, and Windows. Because JavaScript has a forgiving, flexible syntax and works across all major browsers, it is one of the friendliest programming languages for beginners.
Go: One of the core communications favored by Google, Go is the base language that could. As a low-level language, Go is perfect for engineers who want to start systems programming. It incorporates much of the same functionality of C and C++ without the complicated syntax and perpendicular learning curve. It’s the typical language for creating web servers, data pipelines, and even machine-learning ensembles. As a compiled language, Go runs “close to the metal,” supporting for a blazing-fast runtime. It’s an open-source language, and ambitious developers can see their contributions approved and appreciated by programmers worldwide.
Scala: As a functional programming language, Scala provides engineers to elevate the quality of their code to resemble pure math. Scala allows for concurrent programming, providing complex procedures to be executed in parallel. Moreover, it is a strongly typed language. Engineers can create and customize their data types, enabling them to have peace of mind recognizing the whole swarm of bugs are hopeless at runtime.
Elm: Elm compiles to JavaScript, making it ideal for building fast-executing UIs with zero errors at runtime. Elm is a functional programming language, allowing developers to create client-side interfaces without the declarative trappings of HTML and CSS. Elm web architecture was the intellectual inspiration for Redux; the state-management library taught here at Fullstack.
Python: Python is possibly the most user-friendly programming language. It’s often stated that Python’s syntax is sincere, intuitive, and almost English-like, which, similar to Java, makes it a traditional choice for beginners. In addition, Python has several applications that make it a ready, powerful alternative when choosing the best programming language for your use problem. For example, if you’re interested in back-end web development, then the open-source Django framework, written in Python, is comprehensive, easy to learn, and feature-rich. Django has been used in the improvement of some popular websites like Instagram, Mozilla, and Spotify.
C#: Like C++, C# (pronounced C Sharp) is a general-purpose, object-oriented language built on the foundations of C. Microsoft initially designed it as part of its .NET framework for building Windows applications. C# uses a syntax similar to other C-derived languages such as C++, so it’s easy to pick up if you’re coming from another language in the C family. C# is not only the go-to for Microsoft app development, but it’s also the language mobile developers use to build cross-platform apps on the Xamarin platform. Anyone interested in VR development should consider learning C#. C# is the recommended language for creating 3D and 2D video games using the popular Unity game engine, which produces one-third of the top games on the market.
Rust: Rust is a part of an upstart between the other languages on this list, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable to learn. Rust is the most loved programming language amidst developers for the fifth year in a row, with 86.1 percent of Rust developers saying they want to maintain working with it. Rust highlights writing “safe code” by preventing programs from striking parts of memory that they shouldn’t, creating unexpected behavior and system collisions.
Ruby: Ruby is the different scripting language that’s commonly used for web development. In particular, it’s accepted as the basis for the leading Ruby on Rails web application structure. Newcomers often gravitate toward Ruby because it has a status for having one of the friendliest and most influential user communities. In addition, Ruby is an attractive language to choose from, acknowledgments to its relationship with great tech companies. Bloomberg, Twitter, Airbnb, Shopify, and innumerable other startups have all formulated their websites using Ruby on Rails at some time.
Conclusion
When preferring which programming language to learn, it’s imperative not to get hooked up in flashy trends and popularity contests. The best programming languages to study in 2021 are likely the same ones that were best to acquire in 2017 and 2018, and that will continue to be true for the following years. Although the field of computer programming changes swiftly, the languages that we’ve discussed above have a big deal of staying power. By getting one or more of these languages, you’ll be in a unique position not only for this year but in the years to grow.