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Choosing Your First Programming Language? Pick From These 5

Juan Cruz Martinez
Better Programming
Published in
8 min readApr 21, 2021

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the words “choosing your first programming language” and some graphics related to learning, e.g. books, a light bulb
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Choosing our first programming language is a dilemma most of us have gone through when we were taking our first, tentative steps on this programming journey.

Your first programming language becomes a deciding factor that shapes your impression of programming itself. And it could be the thing that convinces you to continue further or abandon learning programming completely.

So if you are someone entirely new to programming, hoping to dip your toes into the field to see what all the buzz around it is about, you have to be extra careful when picking the first programming language.

Your reasons for learning programming could be different. You might want to learn to program as a hobby or for a personal project. Or you might be looking for a career switch or a side hustle opportunity. Which programming language should be your first could depend on these reasons too.

Therefore, we have prepared this guide for you to find your pick among five of the most popular programming languages in 2021. From this mixture of established and up-and-coming languages that are ready to dominate the programming world for a long time to come, you’ll be able to find a language that checks all your boxes as your first programming language.

Python

In recent years, especially with self-learners, Python has become a leading choice among programming languages for beginners.

According to PyPL index , which analyzes Google searches for programming language tutorials, Python edges out the rest of the languages by over a 10% margin.

The main reason for Python’s overwhelming popularity among beginners is its easy-to-understand syntax. As a high-level language, compared to languages like Java and C, Python’s syntax is closer to the human languages we understand. It eliminates the fluff and the verbose syntax we see in other languages by including only the most necessary symbols and keywords.

For example, a simple Hello World function in Python takes only one line of code.

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Juan Cruz Martinez
Juan Cruz Martinez

Written by Juan Cruz Martinez

I stream, blog, and make youtube videos about tech stuff. I love coding, I love React, and I love building stuff!

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