5 Best Programming Languages to Learn in 2020

If you’re just getting started with the tech world. You have often wondered about which is the best programming language to learn in 2020. Here, I will try to give you a clear picture about multiple languages that you might find interesting to learn.

You might want to also read this to know how you can find your way around learning programming languages. That is how I advise you to go on about learning new programming languages.

Quick Navigation

Best Programming Languages to Learn

Here is a list of programming languages which are considered best according to this stack overflow insight. I have picked the beginner friendly languages which will have real world use cases in short time. You might love it, you might hate it comment below about what you think about the list I have curated.

#1 Python

What can I say about the programming language that is the MVP of modern days? It is a powerful programming language which was created back in 1990 by Guido van Rossum. And it is a multi-paradigm object oriented programming language having support for functional programming.

But It is an interpreted programming language, meaning each line will be evaluated each time you run the program. Which makes it famous among the network admin, security enthusiast ( hackers ), and developers. Even if you are developer of other language you might already know a little about python.

There are 2 major versions of python 2.x and 3.x. The version 2.x is discontinued, meaning it will not be used anymore. But it doesn’t mean it will soon be wiped from existence, it will not go away but the use of it will be rare. Because there might be legacy hardware and software systems still running on 2.x.

The downside only being 3.x code is not compatible with 2.x. There are number of changes under the hood of these two versions. But don’t worry they are subtle changes and I suggest you start with python 3.x. Once you understand the python programming language it’s not that difficult to look between the two.

What can you do with python ?

It’s a great question to ask, because if you’re learning it then there must be some useful. You can do multiple things once you learn python. Here is a list of things which you can do with python.

Back end web development, you can create really great applications with python, read more
API development for simple / complex projects, read more
Desktop application building with PyGTK, read more
Mobile development, but this is really at it’s infancy at the time of writing this article, read more
Scripting to automate almost everything, limit is your imagination, read more

#2 Java

Next up in our list of best programming languages to learn is Java. It is a powerful general purpose programming language capable of scaling to enterprise level. So if you’re getting into the Java ecosystem you are getting in the enterprise (not really, unless you know what you’re doing). But regardless of the use case it is a great programming language created by James Gosling.

And Java is a multi-platform programming language which follows write once, run anywhere (WORA) principle. You need not worry about writing platform dependent code for multiple platform. Java does this for you, you should focus on your business logic instead of the platform it is going to be deployed to.

Java will help you learn the concepts of programming as it is one true Object Oriented Programming (OOP) language. It will help you understand the OOP in fine details if you really get started with it. Also Java is used in enterprise so there is wide use of Java in any platform.

There is a myth about Java being slow. It was slow in the early years but Java has come a long way since. To give you some insight about performance the Minecraft game was originally written in Java. So being slow is out of the conversation. Rest assure and keep learning Java it will help you in your career greatly.

What can you do with Java ?

Here are a list of things I have listed that you can do with Java.

Create web applications that can handle 1000’s of concurrent connections
You can create Android application after you learn the Android framework
Create RESTful API’s for even large scale enterprise applications
Create desktop applications which can run on any platform with a single code base

Which makes Java one of the best programming languages to learn in 2020. Try it out for yourself and then find out.

Also Read: 3 Essential Datastructures in Object Oriented Programming
TECHENUM

#3 Javascript

Javascript (JS) is yet another programming language capable of doing great things. Alongside HTML & CSS, Javascript makes up the World Wide Web ( WWW, not to be confused with the Internet ). It is based on the ECMAScript, meaning all the specifications of JS comes from ECMAScript. It was created back in 1995 by Brendan Eich, but there are also other contributors.

JS is also considered as multi-paradigm programming language that supports wide range of programming styles. But sometimes it is not considered as a true OOP because of it lack in features available to other OOP. For instance: interface, but this can be easily handled by using Typescript (TS).

Javascript is mainly used in client side, meaning on browser of the user. It is used to add interactivity to the web page the user is currently viewing. It is the main purpose of JS but since 2012 it can be even used to develop server side web applications which is possible because of NodeJS.

Besides everything else JS is really powerful and flexible language if you know how to do things. It is one of the best programming languages to learn in your career. Assuming that you are serious about web development. Even large companies like PayPal are using NodeJS for their back-end servers, obviously they are using other langues too.

What can you do with Javascript ?

Make web pages interactive by using certain frameworks
Develop back-end systems and APIs with NodeJS
Create browser extensions ( Chrome, Mozilla, Opera, and more )

These are the things you can do with JS which I think is pretty cool. Because most of the time we spend browsing websites. It is one handy tool be kept at your collections.

#4 PHP

PHP is short for Hypertext Pre Processor, which wasn’t always like that. It was originally called Personal Home Page by its creator Rasmus Lerdorf. He created PHP back in 1995, the same year as when the JS was created. It is a general purpose scripting language mainly targeted for web developement. You can easily create desktop applications with PHP but I suggest you choose something else for this job.

PHP runs on top of Zend Engine and is an interpreted language. Some might considered PHP’s performance to be slow. But on a real scenario you don’t handle millions of connections with a single server. PHP was slow prior to versions 7.x.x, but now the latest version being 7.x.x it is no longer the case.

Even Facebook was originally written in PHP, and is still functioning over the custom implementation known as Hack. Hack is a programming language which runs on Hip Hop Virtual Machine (HHVM). PHP isn’t really that bad considering the development changes it has come through. There are quite powerful frameworks written for PHP, eg. Laravel, I have used it and I can say it makes development a lot easier.

If you are into web development you should learn PHP, you can switch later. My suggestion is while learning you should not make firm choices. You should understand how the web works. Eveything else you can learn later. Being said that there are a lot of opportunities for web developer, PHP specifically.

What can you do with PHP ?

Create large scale applications for even clients with heavy requirements
Create API’s and web applications that scale
All the things you can imagine about doing for the web ( possibly ? )

Hence, PHP is one of the best programming language to learn in 2020.

#5 Kotlin

Kotlin is among the best programming languages to learn. It is a cross platform general purpose programming language with type inference. It was developed by JetBrains back in 2011, you might remember JetBrains by IntelliJ IDE’s. At least I do because I work with Android development on a regular basis. But regardless of things that surrounds. It is a great programming language to learn.

Here is why you should learn Kotlin. It runs on top of Java Virtual Machine ( JVM ). Meaning, it will be fully compatible with Java, and you can even use Java classes on Kotlin and vice-versa. It is much more developer friendly, because it has Coroutines and reified types. The reason I like Kotlin is because it can be used with Java and it has Coroutines.

Not only that but Kotlin can also be used for iOS development and can be used to generate JavaScript. Therefore, it can be used for cross platform development. If you feel like you will only stick to one language there might be opportunities with Kotlin. Also, I do not recommend sticking to one language once you get good at programming. You must continually keep exploring the techniques for solving problems.

Why should you learn Kotlin ?

Here are a list of reasons why you should learn Kotlin.

It runs on multiple platform with same code
Fully interoperable with Java
You can build cross platform applications with it
Syntax is easy to learn with multiple productivity advantages over Java

Now that we have listed the best programming languages to learn in 2020. You must understand that no programming language is better than the other. They have their own purpose and their own strengths as they are mere tools. You aim should be identify which tool to use for which job.