Top Programming Languages in 2020

As a technology recruiter, a significant portion of our work-hours is devoted to finding software programmers, therefore, it is important for us to know what programming languages are in demand currently as this will help us to identify and expand our reach in more relevant programming communities at different platforms (GitHub, StackOverflow, Quora, LinkedIn etc.). There are around 600 programming languages out there. The demand and popularity of programming languages fluctuate every year. Also, new programming languages are coming with attractive features.

Ideally, every programmer should have knowledge of a language that’s close to the system (C, Go, or C++), a language that’s object-oriented (Java or Python), a functional programming language (Scala), and a powerful scripting language (Python and JavaScript) but this may not be possible for everyone, therefore, in this article, we will try to identify 12 most prominent (in terms of skill demand) programming languages in 2020.

1. Python: Developed by Guido van Rossum in the 1990s as an object oriented programming language. Python is widely regarded as a programming language that’s easy to learn, due to its simple syntax, a large library of standards and toolkits, and integration with other popular programming languages such as C and C++. It is a popular programming language, especially among startups, and therefore Python skills are in high demand.

Main Use Cases: Data Science, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Enterprise Application, Web Development.

2. JavaScript: Developed by Brendan Eich in 1995, JavaScript is a prototype based object oriented language. Brendan Eich had developed the initial prototype in only ten days, and the rest is history. Over the years, JavaScript has evolved into a multi-paradigm, high-level, dynamic programming language. The first significant breakthrough of JavaScript came in 2009 when Ryan Dahl has released cross-platform JavaScript runtime Node.js and enabled JavaScript to run on Server Side. The other enormous breakthrough of JavaScript came around 2010 when Google has released a JavaScript based Web development framework AngularJS.

Main Use Cases: Web Development, Backend Development, Mobile App Development, Serverless Computing, Browser Game Development.

3. Java: Back in the ’90s, business applications were mainly developed using C++, which was quite complicated and platform dependent. James Gosling and his team in Sun developed a much simpler, object-oriented, interpreted programming language that also supports Multi-threading programming. Java has achieved Platform independence by developing Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which abstracted the low-level Operating System from developers and gave the first “Write Once, Run anywhere” programming language. Along with business applications, Java is used extensively in the Android mobile operating system. Java is not ideal for applications that run on the cloud, as opposed to the server (which is common for business applications).

Main Use Cases: Server Side Backend Development, Enterprise Application Development, Android App Development, Big Data, Web Development.

4. C#: In 2000, Tech giant Microsoft decided to create their Object Oriented C like programming language C# as part of their .NET initiative, which will be managed (run on a Virtual Machine like Java). The veteran language designer Anders Hejlsberg designed C# as part of Microsoft’s Common Language Initiative (CLI) platform. Like Java, C# is also platform independent and runs on Windows, Linux, Mobile devices.

Main Use Cases: Software for Windows Platform, Server-Side programming, App development, Web Development, Game Development.

5. C: During the 1960s and 1970s, every cycle of the CPU and every byte of memory was expensive. Dennis Ritchie, a Bell lab engineer, has developed a procedural, general-purpose programming language that is compiled directly to machine language. C has served as the foundation for writing more modern languages such as Python, Ruby, and PHP. Since it’s an older programming language, C is not suitable for more modern use cases such as websites or mobile applications. It is platform-dependent, meaning C code is not portable. But if you want to make the most use of your hardware, then C is very good option.

Main Use Cases: C is often used to program hardware, such as embedded devices in automobiles and medical devices used in healthcare. It is also used for System Programming, Game Development, IoT and Real-Time Systems, Machine Learning, Deep Learning.

6. C++: Bjarne Stroustrup has worked with Dennis Ritchie (creator of C) in Bell Lab during the 1970s. Heavily influenced by C, he first created C++ as an extension of C, adding Object-Oriented features. Over time, C++ has evolved into a multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language. Like C, C++ also offers low-level memory access and directly compiled to machine instructions. C++ has lost its popularity to Java, especially in enterprise software development and Big Data domain, in the early 2000s nut it is once again gaining popularity with the rise of GPU, Containerization, Cloud computing, as it can quickly adapt itself to take advantage of Hardware.

Main Use Cases: System Programming, Game Development, IoT and Real-Time Systems, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Embedded Systems, Distributed Systems.

7. Objective C: Objective-C was developed in the late 1980’s with the aim of building a flexible object-oriented programing language with a focus on reusability of code. Objective-C’s creators added some concepts found in another language called Smalltalk , believing this would improve upon C++ as a C-based object-oriented language. Objective-C was adopted by a company called NeXT—Steve Jobs’ computer company he formed before returning to Apple in the late 1980’s—and eventually became the foundation for OS X and iOS (Apple’s desktop and mobile operting systems, respectively). 

Main Use Cases: It was the main programming language supported by Apple for macOS, iOS, and their respective application programming interfaces (APIs), Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, until the introduction of Swift in 2014.

8. Swift: A group of Apple engineers led by Chris Lattner has worked to develop a new programming language Swift mainly to replace Objective-C in the Mac and iOS platforms. It is a multi-paradigm, general-purpose, compiled programming language that also offers high developer productivity. Swift has excellent interoperability with Objective-C codebase and has already established itself as the primary programming language in iOS App development.

Main Use Cases: iOS App Development, System Programming, Client-side development (via WebAssembly), Deep Learning, IoT.

9. PHP: During the ’90s, Software Engineer Rasmus Lerdorf has initially created PHP. Later, more functionalities were added to the PHP product. At present, PHP is a general-purpose, dynamic programming language mainly used to develop server-side Web applications. With the rise of JavaScript based client-side Web application development, PHP is losing its appeal and popularity, although, as an older language, PHP benefits from a large ecosystem of users who have produced frameworks, libraries, and automation tools to make the programming language easier to use.

Main Use Cases: Server-side Web Application Development, Developing CMS systems, Standalone Web Application Development.

10. R: R is heavily used in statistical analytics and machine learning applications. The language is extensible and runs on many operating systems. Many large companies have adopted R in order to analyze their massive data sets, so programmers who know R are in great demand. R does not have the strict programming guidelines of older and more established languages. 

Main Use Cases: R is primarily used in statistical software products. 

11. Ruby: Japanese computer scientist Yukihiro Matsumoto has created Ruby as an “Object-Oriented Scripting language” and released in 1995. Ruby has later evolved into an interpreted, dynamically typed, high-level, multiple-paradigm general-purpose programming language. Ruby has combined some of the best features of programming languages successfully: dynamic, object-oriented, functional, garbage-collected, and concise.

Main Use Cases: Although Ruby itself is not disruptive, its Web development framework Ruby on Rails is probably the most disruptive and influential Server-side Web development framework.

12. Go: Renowned Software Engineers Rob Pike and Ken Thompson in Google has created a new, pragmatic, easy-to-learn, highly scalable system programming language Go and released in 2012. It works well for distributed systems, in which systems are located on different networks and need to communicate by sending messages to each other. Go is used primarily for applications that need to process a lot of data.

Main Use Cases: System Programming, Serverless Computing, Business Applications, Cloud-Native Development, IoT.

Sources:

1. Top 10 In-Demand programming languages to learn in 2020, Md Kamaruzzaman, Towards Data Science.
2. Programming Languages You Should Learn in 2020, Gaurav Belani, Computer Society.
3. History of Python, Sohom Pramanick, GeeksForGeeks.org.
4. The 10 Most Popular Programing Languages to Learn in 2020, Northeastern University.
5. Developer Survey Results (2019), StackOverflow.