Programming Languages Ranked By Difficulty
There’s a zillion different programming languages, so where do I begin?
Programming is the process of writing computer programs
But we (as humans) need to use a programming language to understand computer byte code in order to tell it what to do. However, there are more than a dozen different programming languages, and each one has it’s own purpose. This creates a difficult decision for young developers: Where do I begin, and which language is the easiest to learn?
HTML (easiest)
HTML is the most widely used programming language to make webpages. It’s essentially a skeleton that holds the website together, with CSS being the visuals, and Javascript being the functions.
What makes HTML so easy, is that it requires no logic. All you need to know is the basic syntax, tags, and how to insert different objects. It shouldn’t even be considered a programming language, but it’s very popular so I had to include it.
Javascript
Javascript is another very popular programming language that is crucial for almost all websites. It is the main language for front-end development, and can almost run anywhere, on any website.
All you need to do is open the chrome developer’s console.
Python
Python is a very useful, yet easy programming language. It is also the most popular programming language taught at schools, due to it’s simplicity and easy-to-read logic.
Python can be used for data science, scientific computing, web development, computer graphics, and just about anything you can build with code.
It’s simplicity lets developers to get jobs done faster by writing less code — allowing them to focus on the problem instead of fixing the syntax. It’s also the closest programming language to plain English, which is why it’s so easy to use.
C
C is another very popular programming language used for developing OSes, applications (like photoshop), and print spoolers.
It has a simple syntax with only 32 keywords, and the Data structure is easy to read. Although it’s harder than python or HTML, it’s a great language for programmers to learn before moving onto harder languages.
Go
“Go” is a open-source programming language developed by Google in 2007. It was designed to be simple, high-performing, readable, and efficient.
Due to it’s efficiency to work with codebases, many large companies like Paypal, American Express, Bit.ly, Caprital One, and Meta have all started using the language in their own applications.
Go can be used for server-side (backend) programming, cloud-based programming, game development, and even Data Science.
It’s no doubt one of the simplest programming languages out there, making it very easy to learn if you’ve had a little experience with coding.
According to the Stackoverflow 2020 survey, Go became the 5th most loved programming language because of that.
Java
Java is a widely used object-oriented programming language and software platform that is used on billions of devices, including notebook computers, mobile devices, gaming consoles, medical devices, and many others. The rules and syntax of Java are based on the C and C++ languages.
It’s great for back-end development, game development, and numerical computing. For example, the popular video game Minecraft was coded with this programming language.
Rust
Rust is designed for high performance and code safety. It’s memory efficient, and prevents code crashes.
According to Stackoverflow , it was the most loved programming language for 4 years in a row. However, there’s a catch. It’s not the easiest language to learn, and has a complex syntax with a steep learning curve.
If you’re a beginner in programming, I suggest you start off with easier languages such as Python, Go, and C before trying Rust.
C++ (hardest)
C++ is one of the world’s most popular programming languages
This language is found in operating systems, Games, GUI based applications, Banking applications, Web browsers, Databases, and so much more. It’s faster than Java or Python because it is statically typed, which leads to a faster compilation.
Popular game engines like Unity 3D and Unreal Engine both use C++ as their main language, making Game development very useful with C++
C++ is known for being a difficult language to learn, as it employs a multi-paradigm approach and has more advanced syntax than other popular programming languages.
Conclusion
Above are a list of programming languages ranked from easy to hard, and I hope this helped you decide which programming language fits you the best.
