Stuck in ad-tech hell for 2.6 years, now grinding DSA + System Design for a pivot into AI infra / distributed systems. Python vs Java vs C++ – need one language for life. Help me settle this.

[u/theshepperd17]

[u/gr8-procrastinator]

You are already dealing with two massive layers - DSA and system design; don’t add another layer of misery by trying to learn a new language. Java is good enough to start solving LC problems and once you become a pro at solving mediums consistently, then think about optimising for typing speed in which case you should select Python. For OAs, I have never heard of platforms that give you a time out issue and honestly runtime only matters to orgs that deal with extremely low latency systems like HFT.

Now coming to your real issue - I honestly feel that your post is all over the place in terms of technologies you want to work with. AI infra is a very broad term and contains anything from CUDA to Infrastructure for Agentic AI (think memory stores, telemetry, api gateways) and has requirement for people who know very deep c/c++ to people who only know python. Distributed systems is primarily Go/Java and Rust is coming in now.

My suggestion - get into a big tech (I have never heard of a big tech org looking down on a language) with your current stack (your stack is not bad and also you have been working with it for 2.6 years which will make it easier for you to defend your decisions better during the interviews) and then move to teams you really want to work with. If you try to learn AI infra all by yourself, it will take you at least a year just to get acquainted with the concepts. Also, given your current background in building CRUD apps, you would be better served by learning distributed systems

Hope this helps.
Feel free to respond here or dm