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. It’s 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 spe­cial­iza­tion 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 spe­cial­ize 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 fa­mil­iar­ize 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-stan­dard­ized 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 spe­cial­iza­tion. 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 spe­cial­ized 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 optimize 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++