Top Programming Languages you Need to Learn in 2020

Top Programming Languages you Need to Learn in 2020

Top programming languages to learn in 2020

In this post, you'll learn about the top programming languages that you need to learn in 2020.

Most wanna-be programmers or developers start their journey with this question: What Programming language do I need to learn?

This question is very important and it's not a waste of time at all but you will need to be careful not to spend much time in deciding the first programming language you need to learn instead of actually start learning.

Also the answer to this question is not definitive and it actually depends on many criteria.

Before starting with the list of programming languages, we need to agree on some facts. First, most programmers know more that one programming language so even if you start with a specific language for some reason, you will usually end up learning more languages in your career or even when you are still a student. Second, no programming language is better than the other. It's a matter of choice and goals. For example some languages are better for system programming or game development, some other are more beginners friendlier and easy to grasp for beginners. Other languages have better tools and bigger communities etc. But it finally comes down to what you need to achieve!

Without further ado, let's get started with the top programming languages in 2020!

1. JavaScript

The number one language to be utilized (to keep being utilized), JavaScript is a high-level, multi-paradigm dynamic programming language that will remain the most popular in the world for many more years. Mainly it is used for developing interactive and feature-rich web applications but can also be utilized for creating other software that runs anywhere: servers, browsers, mobile devices, micro-controllers, etc.

2. Python

Being the most learned at the moment, Python will soon increase its utilization popularity as well. Due to elegant and simple syntax, it is considered to be the easiest language to learn and is used for teaching programming. It is widely used for machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), data science as well as for mathematics, statistics, computational science. Being both simple and powerful, Python allows streamlining the development process of robust applications: web or mobile.

3. Java

Despite similar names, Java has little in common with JavaScript. It is an object-oriented, interpreted programming language that was the first one allowing you to write the code once and run it anywhere. This language can be used for the development of applications of all sizes both web and mobile as well as for developing enterprise-level applications and working with Big Data.

4. PHP

Having a large open-source community and being widely used by the industry giants like Facebook or WordPress, PHP remains on-demand even though its popularity slowly decreases. It is a general-purpose dynamic scripting language that was created for building dynamic web applications. Later the functionality of PHP expanded but it is still mainly used for web software development while constantly losing its positions to JavaScript.

5. C++

C++ appeared as an improved version of the C language introducing object-oriented features. It offers a lot of compilers and libraries to build powerful and reliable solutions that can handle high performance and rich functionality. C++ easily adapts to ecosystem or hardware changes and is a perfect option for cloud computing as well as for game development. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn.

6. C

C# is a multi-paradigm programming language created by Microsoft to run on its .NET framework. It combines the code compilation like in C++ with Java-like syntax. C# allows developing fast and feature-rich applications of any complexity across multiple domains: native apps for iOS and Android (with the help of Xamarin), desktop apps for Windows or Linux, complex web systems, etc.

7. Dart

Released by Google in 2011, Dart is a champion in growing popularity right now (+532% in a year). This language can be called user-oriented as it is focused on developing best-in-class user interfaces while providing excellent performance across all kinds of platforms and devices. Dart is mainly used with Flutter, a wide-spread UI toolkit from Google that allows building beautiful and user-friendly web and mobile applications.

8. Rust

Rust is another programming language with fast-growing popularity (+235% in a year). It is used for building VR applications, game engines, operating systems, etc. Being fast and memory-efficient, Rust is a perfect choice for powering performance-critical solutions and running on embedded devices.

9. Kotlin

Kotlin is another modern general-purpose programming language (released in 2015) that keeps gaining popularity. It runs on JVM (Java virtual machine) and allows using the multitude of Java’s libraries. Having a much more simple and clean code than Java, Kotlin offers the developer productivity close to Python’s. Due to all of these significant advantages, it is now the main language for android app development.

10. TypeScript

TypeScript is one of the fastest-growing open-source languages that calls itself ‘JavaScript that scales’. It has the same syntax as JavaScript which makes its learning as easy as ABC (by everyone who already knows JavaScript) — that is one of the reasons why TypeScript is so fast-adopted by the industry. One more reason is its extended functionality allowing software engineers to build larger-scale solutions.