Which programming language should I learn first?

The answer to the most commonly-asked question about learning to code

It all comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish.

As a technical writer, my mission is to make complex topics easy to understand, so you won’t find much technical jargon in this article. I could rant and rave about object-oriented programming and data structures, but if you’re new to coding and computer science, this won’t mean much to you (yet). The purpose of this article is to give you a very broad and simple introduction to the world of programming, and to help you figure out how (and what) to start learning.

Which programming language should I learn first?

This is the most common question I’ve received since publishing What I Wish I Knew Before I Learned To Code. Most people assume there’s an obvious choice, but the answer is not always so clear.

Many coding bootcamps focus exclusively on JavaScript, perhaps with the assumption that everyone who wants to be a developer should just start with front-end work. JavaScript is pretty much unavoidable if you want to get into front-end development, but many people jump into it before even considering what they’re trying to accomplish by learning how to code.