Must Know Programming Languages to be a Successful Developer

By Saurabh Hooda

Must-know programming languages

The Software Industry is growing at a rate that has never been witnessed before. A decade ago, the smartest people went into trading and finance. Today, the smartest people get into tech. The top companies of the world like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. are all heavily tech driven. In fact, these days, a lot of tech startups are also emerging. As a result, there is a huge requirement of Software Developers in the market.

At the bare minimum, any business today needs a website and a mobile application. Businesses that want to achieve scalability use the internet as a channel to do so. Think about how Amazon has revolutionized the retail sector by opening up the global market for each retailer as against the original local market. The market therefore needs more techies, more developers who can come and help in this big revolution. It is for this reason, the digital industry witnesses a surge in online programming courses and tutorials so a to-be developer doesn’t have to put in much effort to pursue competence.

Tech requirements of organizations can be broadly divided into 2 broad domains:

• Frontend Development: This involves the development of the UI and the UX of the application - the way how the users of the application see it. For instance, the Google Search page - it is a classic example of a well designed frontend with minimum complexity. The page is highly easy to use. Anyone with even bare minimum knowledge of computers and the internet can easily use Google search - that’s the power of a well designed UI that has been designed by a skilled Frontend Developer.
• Backend Development: This involves the development of the server-side architecture - the side where the actual logic is implemented. Continuing with the above Google Search example, the backend would consist of the algorithms that Google uses to rank various pages for the purpose of generating the search results.

In this article, we will talk about the programming languages that you must learn in order to be a successful developer.

Backend Development

The most commonly used backend development languages include Python, PHP, Java, etc. Today, each programming language supports a modern development framework that facilitates the development of a web application by implementing the backend logic. We will talk about some of the hot programming languages and the associated backend frameworks.

• Python: Python is heavily being used these days at various organizations. Python gained popularity when Google started using it in some of its backend systems. Python is fast, reliable and secure. A large number of startups are using Python as their backend programming language and therefore Python has a huge market out there. Python developers are being paid quite well all across the world. There are several excellent Python based web frameworks that are being commonly used - Django, Flask, Pylons, etc. Knowledge of these frameworks is a plus.
• JavaScript: JavaScript was traditionally used only on the frontend. However, with the advent of modern frameworks like NodeJS, JavaScript has become the language of both the backend as well as the frontend. NodeJS developers are highly in demand in the market. Many new startups are employing NodeJS given the fact that they don’t have to hire separate kind of developers for frontend and backend.
• Ruby: Another popular choice of backend these days is Ruby on Rails (RoR) which is a Ruby-based modern web framework for developing powerful web applications. RoR developers are highly sought after and they are making a killer living.
• Java: Java has remained as the most popular choice for the backend for most corporations. It is stable and extremely reliable and so, most corporates use Java as their backend programming language for almost all their systems. Developers with knowledge of Spring/Hibernate (Java based web frameworks) are high in demand.
• PHP: PHP is another widely used choice for the backend when it comes to large organizations. PHP has been in the market since a long time and so, it has a reputation of being a reliable and a stable language just like Java. Therefore, large organizations use PHP heavily for their backend systems.

Backend Development summary:

• Python, JavaScript and Ruby are hot in the emerging companies, particularly in the startup world. If you want to join that hot tech startup, aim to master one of these programming languages.
• Java and PHP are extensively used in the large organizations. If you aim to be a developer in one such organization, you should be an expert in these programming languages.

Frontend Development

Frontend development is divided across the following 3 parts:

• Content of the page: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the language that is used for the content of the page. The text that you are reading on this blog is nothing but HTML.
• Look and feel of the page: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the language that is used for the look and feel of the page. Using CSS, you can specify gazillions of things including the font size, color, style (bold/italics/underline), positioning (x and y coordinates), padding, etc. Nowadays CSS based frameworks like Bootstrap and Materialize CSS are used to simplify the layout and the design of the page.
• Interactivity of the page: JS (JavaScript) is the language that is used to bring-in interactivity to the page. For instance, when you click on a particular button on a certain page, a modal popup shows up. This interactivity is programmed using JavaScript. Today, there are several JavaScript based frontend frameworks like AngularJS, ReactJS, etc. which are used to design interactive frontend.

Frontend Development summary:

• HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the bread and butter of frontend development. Knowledge of these 3 is absolutely a must for any frontend developer. Bootstrap is an excellent CSS based framework that is used to develop page designs quickly.
• AngularJS and ReactJS are 2 of the popularly used frontend web frameworks that are used to design interactive frontends. Frontend developers with knowledge of these frameworks are high in demand.

There are some developers who have knowledge of both frontend as well as backend development. Such developers are called as Full-stack developers and are high in demand in the market owing to the fact that they can do both frontend and backend.

• Ideally, if you have a strong knowledge of both, it would be the best scenario. This is something you should aim for.
• If you do not have mastery in both, you should be good at at least one of the two and have a basic idea of the other. For instance, many people choose to have a thorough knowledge of backend development with some idea of frontend as well.

One thing that you should always make sure is that you should always remain equipped with new emerging technologies. This will ensure that you keep up with the growing needs of the market.

About the Author:

Saurabh Hooda

Saurabh has worked globally for telecom and finance giants in various capacities. After working for a decade in Infosys and Sapient, he started his first startup, Lenro, to solve a hyperlocal book-sharing problem. He is interested in product, marketing, and analytics. His latest venture Hackr.io recommends the best Unity tutorial and online programming courses for every programming language. All the tutorials are submitted and voted by the programming community.