General question

Question

Recently my friend told that he will make his core language as python and Java. We are CSE students at our 2nd semester. He told me to consult a senior to decide which language I should make my core language. But I think it doesn't depend on the language, but rather on our problem solving skills. I think I should be learning many languages to expand my mind around programming. So, I need some advice from experienced developers about my future career in software development. Should I make one language as my core or learn many languages with equal effort?
PS: excuse me for any errors in my English:)

Answer 1

There is so much truth being spoken in this thread that's reflective of how unprepared many CS graduates in a certain market with a curriculum that's out of touch from the industry or anything promoting independent / innovative thought.

Despite there being a massive labor force in said job market, it's alarming how few and far between we're able to find quality candidates with the most basic technical skills and aptitude for learning to be considered for our teams. Even those considered to be senior developers with 14 years experience are really just 1 year junior developers 14 times over.

These system wide curriculums are failing generations of software engineers by not focusing on critical thinking skills and sharpening an intuition for programmatically solving problems and implementing solutions.

The years of failed institutionalized education is alarmingly more apparent with the abysmal lack of resourcefulness reflected by so many low quality questions that overwhelm this community.

Answer 2

Python is love.
Python is life.
Python is happyness.

*sarcasm intended to counterbalance Martin Taylor*

Seriously, I like Python, but it does have its limitations and flaws, often overlooked by enthusiasts, that can eventually bite back later in a serious project. However, why would big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft invest so much in Python, if it were absolute garbage? It does have its uses in many areas of software, especially exploratory data science. Maybe another theological debate can follow, if data scientists can even be considered as software developer / programmer or not.

When I started using SoloLearn, I began with Python. Since then it has moved back to my 4th favorite, after Clojure, Kotlin and Scala. Maybe it's not obvious from this, but my recommendation for Rishi is to learn Java, because that will open the way for other, maybe more advanced JVM languages.

Answer 3

Hopefully, the people in this thread are the exception and we're just preaching to the choir. 😉

Answer 4

I am not a expert but according to me you have to learn problem solving skill rather than learning many languages .there are may be 6-8languages that are recommended to learn ,but I think all of them having same basic logic like all have for loop ,oop etc.select one language and learn problem solving that's the better choice 👍👍

Answer 5

Focus on one language. If you're looking to make a actual career out of programming, then Java may be the better of the 2 to learn proficiently, depending on the specific type of programming you want to do. If your leaning more toward data science, then choose Python. Use this 1 language to learn the more advanced topics such as threading, concurrency, parallelism, data structures, design patterns, advanced algorithms, (trees, dynamic programming, bfs, dfs, Big O, etc). Become as fluent as possible in the language learning beyond just its core uses and methods. Maybe even get genuinely certified in that language (not just a SL certificate). For Java get certified through Oracle. You may also want to learn some additional libraries (Collections, JDBC, Cryptography, Serialization, etc) and/or frameworks (such as Spring, Spring Boot, Hibernate, etc). Look into 3rd party libraries and frameworks as well after learning the Java core libraries and frameworks.

Answer 6

@Martin Taylor
"A consequence of this is that learning sites pick up on this trend and promote courses (paid and unpaid) for it."

True. Look at the SoloLearn courses
- Python for Beginners
- Python Intermediate
- Python Core
- Python Data Structures
- Machine Learning (through Python)
- Data Science (through Python)

Do we need these many? I don't think so. Do other languages have a "for beginner" or "intermediate" course? No. Why the special treatment to Python? I think the reason's pretty clear. It is my prediction that the next language with these many courses would be JavaScript.

Answer 7

Oh thank you all so much. Now I have an idea and I'll figure out what's best for me. I appreciate all for taking the time to consider this question. Happy Life!

Answer 8

Martin Taylor As a follow up to the posted question... for you, as one of the few professionals in this community who makes my 25 year career seem like I'm just getting started 😂🤣...

Do you find yourself still preferring your original core languages over the new crop of languages that emerged in the 90s through early 2000s? Or are you more language agnostic and open to working with any language as needed?

Given the choice to actively drive development with a new project, would you prefer a project reflecting technologies from the first or last 10 years of your career?

Which technologies would you choose? Again assuming there was a project for all possibilities to work on.

Finally, if you could pick the decade you could have started your career, would you remain with the time you began or was there another period in time that you thought would have been more ideal?

Feel free to NOT answer. 😉

Answer 9

Martin Taylor I realize I misunderstood that part. i thought you meant you're being around for 30 years.

Answer 10

"Having been around 30 years"
Martin Taylor correction: it's 40 years and you're in 2021!

joke aside, ahh, and Now python fanboys will try to defend themselves... which... is not good which will it end up being a debate...

Answer 11

Martin Taylor oh okay thank you for your comment. I too decided the same. I think I'll explore some languages deep and baise more towards solving problems using those languages rather than just learning them

Answer 12

Ayush 😲 okay. What's js and ts?