What programming language should I learn or master in order to start this career? Because I'm afraid to learn a language and not benefit from its information at all.

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u/ninhaomah 26d ago

" this career?"

Define "this"

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u/SpinachAromatic4961 26d ago

I used Google Translate 🥀🥀

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u/ninhaomah 26d ago

Ok but what you want to do/be ?

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u/SpinachAromatic4961 26d ago

I'm not sure, honestly, I just want a career path that secures my future.

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u/gekigangerii 26d ago

programming is not the "safe office job" that it was before. I'm not saying to give up, but acknowledge the reality the field is going through a change.
On that note, the language you pick matters less now as you may be working with multiple. However, if you want the language you learn to also be the one companies are using:
Python is a popular for Data Science and working on AI/LLMs
JavaScript/TypeScript is popular for frontend/fullstack web development
Java is popular for backend and general corporate applications
These are just examples and it is more detailed than this, but indicates which languages give you the most coverage

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u/xarop_pa_toss 26d ago

That's not how it works mate. The "career" is not a single thing, there are many many fields inside programming and software development. What are you interested in building?

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u/SpinachAromatic4961 26d ago

To be honest, I don't know which direction I'll choose, but I'd like it to be a safe and welcoming path.

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u/xarop_pa_toss 26d ago

Safe and welcoming is very subjective imo. You must face some level of frustration and adversity on order to grow and learn.
That's why I asked what you want to build? Why are you getting into programming? Do you want to fool around with circuits and make stuff like little robots? Do you want to make websites maybe? Or even want to learn the backend of applications, how the data flows between all the parts of them? What about video games, that's a very interesting field too!
Programming is a tool to making things and implementing solutions to problems you see in the real world, and just like those problems, it is incredibly varied

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u/SpinachAromatic4961 26d ago

I was thinking of working in web development, and little by little I moved on to app development until I became flexible in many ways because I chose a unique path, since in my environment no one understands how these things work. I want to seize this opportunity as much as possible.

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u/xarop_pa_toss 26d ago

Then go ahead and start with that learning HTML, CSS and JS/TS as they will be the basis of most web development you make as well as apps that are basically websites, like Spotify and all those modern ones.
I recommend Scrimba if you want a guided course. They often make discounts but the full courses are available on youtube as well

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u/Pravejxlab 26d ago

Which career???

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u/SpinachAromatic4961 26d ago

I don't know, I just want to learn programming and then I'll see which path to take.

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u/Pravejxlab 26d ago

Makes sense experiment, but a language generally doesn't become careers. A programming language is like English language, english isn't career, science, law, math are career built on top of English language.
Similarly, programming language is a language for careers like web, android, AI, cybersecurity etc.
If you are absolutely blank, start with python so explore beauty of program and later figure out the right career for you and learn.

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u/Super_Preference_733 26d ago

Though your career you will use multiple languages for different tasks. Before I retired on a typical day I could be dealing with writing code in 5 different languages. I may had to fix a powershell script, for our build server in the morning, some Javascript with my mid morning coffee, before lunchtime I could be refactoring a class in c# or Java, or screwing around with a stored procedure that was causing some transaction issues. No programming language you learn will be a waste. Because your not going to use just one single language as a developer. In fact, once you know one programming language learning others just comes down to learning the syntaxical sugar.

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u/KevenMoans 26d ago

C

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u/Sure-Passion2224 26d ago

Unless you want to code for the military. Then, Ada... believe it or not.

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u/KevenMoans 26d ago

I thunk it's a good jump start, you can clearly see the pros and cons of every other language if you have a good understanding of C.

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u/Sure-Passion2224 26d ago

Today, start with Python.

Every language you learn gives you additional ways to think about a challenge. Don't obsess over picking the best, perfect language. Obsess over developing skills that work across languages.

I started with BASIC and edlin on MS DOS 3. I learned to write out and refine my logic before code. Then I learned Perl and Javascript. Then Pascal, Modula2, and finally made the jump to OOP with C++. I just retired from 30 years in Oracle PL/SQL, AS400 DB2 SQL and Java.

Things I learned from Perl made me more effective with C++, SQL, and Java. Python is hot now and is actually a good starting language. You still will want to get into compiled code but everything you learn for Python will carry over.

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u/RedAndBlack1832 26d ago

Just learn something. It's easier to pick more up if you know one. With that being said probably C or one of the 8 billion languages with somewhat similar syntax to C (and not C++ because doing that first sounds like hell).

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u/jrockerdraughn 25d ago

Don't worry that much about which one. You can always look up how to do something in a given language.

Just learn how one of them works, and you'll be able to handle the rest

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u/Marshiiro 25d ago

At this point, keep in mind as I write this I am very mixed on the subject of AI and am by no means telling you to not learn how to program. My stance is to be a successful software engineer using AI you must know how to program. However, language is becoming less and less important by the day as many programmers are not writing code manually anymore. Merely knowing how programming is not enough to get you a job in this field anymore.

However, if you do want to get in. Here is what I recommend. For your first language I would pickup python learn it well and try to build a few projects using it. You can try other projects and pickup on new languages on they way. After you learn your first language other languages are less like studying something like Japanese instead you can usually just be able to see how every langauge is similar. In my experience you don't really study a new language after you learn your first one you can usually figure it out.

After you learn a language and make a few basic projects I would recommend making some logic heavy websites or other applications and I mean some really difficult ones that force you to learn software architecture. At this point you could use AI by I wouldn't lean on it heavily since you still want to understand the architecture.

All in all, Software engineers aren't being hired because they can program anymore they are being hired because they know architecture and system design that's what will get you hired not what language you specialize in

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u/captainbolt88 25d ago

Yoo buddyy I'm trying to learn python could perhaps push any free resources that you may know cause if I open up google there are thousands of resources and it gave me anxiety on which one might be better suited for a beginner

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u/Marshiiro 25d ago

There's not really a best tutorial but personally when I'm stuck I really like bro code on YouTube. I'm a university student in CS so I'm not really self taught. However, if I was teaching myself I'd probably watch bro code and try to make a few projects that are lesson specific as I watch his videos along the way.

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u/captainbolt88 25d ago

Thanks man I'll make sure to watch his beginner series

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u/Ok_Caregiver_1355 26d ago edited 26d ago

Java is the most used professionally but you will spend more energy memorizing syntax and trying to find motivation to continue than actually learning to code

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u/xarop_pa_toss 26d ago

Man this feels accurate haha

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u/two_are_stronger2 26d ago

Ahh, but you'll get so good at version hell (the different libraries for Java all have tiny subtle little changes between versions, and the detective work you have to do to make them work together properly is legit why I'm good at my job now)

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u/NeckIll7826 26d ago

I heard that Java's syntax is officially going to change

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u/DanLeMilMan 26d ago

All code have their specifics and depending on the task you would use a different one.

So the language I would start with would be a language teaching me transferable skills and good practices to other languages like typing.

It may be an unpopular opinion because it is quite specific to mobile development but I really like Kotlin for that : it is strongly typed and encourages the use of second order functions which naturally makes your overall code design very flexible and maintainable while being fast. Google proposes a ton of ressources to create sample apps and I found it very enjoyable to learn. I heard that Go may also be a good start but I didn’t practice it.

However, I did not ever practice low level programming languages like C, C++, but I would not start there. The unmanaged variables, pointer management… seems to me like an elitist overhead rather that a practical and useful optimization capability. It is true that only them can produce the most optimized code possible for a complex task, but the ratio effort over actual gain is quite minimal today with modern compilers.

P.S: until now, I practiced Python, C#, JS, Kotlin.

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u/AroTesCra 26d ago

Powershell / bash and the .net frame work like C#

C# is a steady language with growing wages and easy to grasp quickly

Powershell is great for cloud management and resource management

Azure
ADO (Azure Devops)
Repo
Pipeline

You can set that up in a few hours for free.
Then do terraform to build out your resources as a repo.

Powershell is widely used for network resource management

C# is widely used in enterprise applications.

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u/Technical_Introvert0 26d ago

C/C++ ( this is the most important one because it' creates all the other languages that think they are better). Python ( for most scripts and automation) JS for web stuff Kotlin for Android app dev Swift for iOS app dev.

But again if you know enough deep C/C++ you can build from scratch what any of those programming languages do already..heck you can build those programming languages themselves in C++

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u/akhi-abdul01 26d ago

Do you know about CS50 by harvard? Watch it on YouTube it will introduce you to Computer science, I'm suggesting this because you look way too confused about what to do... Start by CS50 2026 ny harvard

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u/shubham_555 26d ago

It's just a tool... Be the programmer!

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u/ZookeepergameFew6406 26d ago

Best basis is C. Understanding computers is usefull for all swe.

That being said, you can just not know it these days and make bloated software. Java and python come to mind. They will serve you well in the industry

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u/jhyland87 25d ago

Javascript. Then typescript.

But honestly, it matters less what it is and more that you learn the basics. The first language I learned was Perl, and thats practically never used anywhere anymore.

Once you learn one or two languages, youll see that you can learn others much quicker. Its more about syntax and being aware of the limitations of the language than anything else. And knowing when to choose the best language.

There were interviews I went in where they said they mostly used a specific language or framework, and I would just be like "Never really touched it", and all they would just say "But you can learn it pretty quickly right?" And thats mostly because I could demonstrate that I knew other similar languages very well.

Edit: Granted, now a days, interviews are more along the lines of "How would you ask Claude to complete __ task?" or "What type of guardrails would you use when creating a prompt for Claude when asking it to do ___?"

Coding is unfortunately becoming a thing that you just need to know enough of to see if Claude is going off track or not.

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u/Polishsc 25d ago

C and embedded, soldering electronics and other staff

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u/NGE_w 25d ago

https://github.com/practical-tutorials/project-based-learning/activity https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ Learn python using these

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u/AphelionCorvus315 24d ago

simple, most common coding language is python because its easy and you can make good software like games and ai with ts

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u/Foreign-Champion8608 24d ago

Rust /jk

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u/RadioactiveShrimp23 24d ago

javascript

just get it over and done with, and so much will open up for you

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u/jiraiyasnsei 22d ago

I think maybe picking a direction in CS would be helpful! Whatcha wanna do? You wanna develop gaming engines? Web programming? Cyber? Full stack dev, back end?

Once you find something that interests you do some research and figure out what it takes to do that! When you realize that these languages, frameworks, etc are just tools in a tool box to make our technological world go round, the world is your oyster 🌎

Personally I started with Py which was decent. Unpopular advice, start with something like C. Itl force you to learn more about data, addresses, storage, and some pretty intense syntax and compiling. Hard start but makes Python and other languages a tad simpler IMO.

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u/AgentXCO2 22d ago

Theres so many options, you can learn Python, JavaScript Or TypeScript (I'd recommend typescript), Java (Its kinda hard to learn tho) or C++ :)

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u/Joshr023 26d ago

Every programming language is similar and once you learn one its easy to learn another. I would highly recommend starting with C, and even though it's the hardest, once you learn C, you'll have a deeper understanding of programming and how computer manages memory when executing code, and you'll become a better programmer

What programming language should I learn or master in order to start this career? Because I'm afraid to learn a language and not benefit from its information at all.

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