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What Coding Language Should You Teach Yourself?

Coding and programming are major additions to any worker’s skillset and can make the job market a much easier place to navigate. Companies everywhere are looking for candidates who are already trained in various coding languages, and the good news is that with all the online resources available for free, it’s easy to teach yourself how to code.  
 
Specopssoft.com, one of the leading providers of business data protection, investigated which programming languages people most want to teach themselves. The company used Specops Software to gather data; they found the most commonly searched for programming languages on Google and YouTube in the past month, using ahrefs.com to determine which phrases had the most global searches. They also divided their data by country to pick up on geographical trends. 
 
Google and YouTube keyword explorer tools revealed the results: The most sought-after programming language is Python.
 
“Learn Python” has the most global searches on Google, with 182,000 monthly searches and 53,000 monthly searches on YouTube. This gives Python the highest combined volume of 235,000 searches each month.
 
Java is the second most popular coding language, with the phrase “Learn Java” coming up in 64,000 monthly Google searches and 20,000 monthly YouTube searches for 84,000 total results. C++ comes in third, with 48,000 Google searches and 8,400 YouTube searches for a total of 56,000 searches.
 
SQL, PHP and R come next, followed by Swift, Kotlin, MATLAB, and C language. The least popular self-taught coding languages are Ruby on Rails, Java Script and in last place, Rust.
 
JavaScript’s low place on the scale is one of the more surprising results, as it is very common and allows cloud computing to run smoothly. Spocopssoft.com believes that because JavaScript is considered one of the easiest coding languages to learn, the search volumes are slightly lower than anticipated.
 
When the data is divided by country, the US comes out on top for largest volume of searches in general, with a total of 182,150 monthly searches across Google and YouTube. “Learn Python” is still the most-searched language, with a combined total of 85,000 searches. “Learn Java” comes in second once again, with a combined total of 25,9000 searches. “Learn C++” again comes in third with 24,400 searches.
 
The US’s last place language is C language, which received only 310 monthly searches. The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia also minimally searched for C language. The results for the top three contenders remained the same except in Canada, where “Learn SQL” beat out “Learn C++” for the third-place spot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Specopssoft.com also gathered data on what the most common issues are when learners attempt to master a programming language. In order to get an idea as to what issues new developers experience, they divided their data by the most common coding languages.
 
For Python, the most-asked questions include:

  • What is NumPy array? (3,100 global searches)
  • Python Tuple vs list (2,400)
  • Python Tuple to string (800)
  • How to convert a list into string? (200)
  • How do I run a python script? (100)

The Java-oriented questions include:

  • Why Java is platform-independent? (3,400 global searches)
  • Private constructor in Java (1,600)
  • What are wrapper classes in Java? (900)
  • Why Java is not pure object-oriented language? (250)
  • Explain public static void in main in Java (150) 

C++ question include:

  • What are C++ pointers? (21,000 global searches)
  • What is class in C++? (8,900)
  • Abstract class in C++? (8,700)
  • What is C++ recursive function? (1,200)
  • C++ static class member meaning?  (200)

Where to Teach Yourself Coding

With a wide breadth of online resources available for free, there are many options available to use to teach yourself a coding language. Here are some of the most popular:
 
Codecademy: Codecadamy has been running for seven years and has had 45 million learners. Developers can learn through programs based around web development, programming and computer science or data science. The program provides instant feedback and allows learners to participate in real-world projects. Their free coding lessons include HTML & CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby and more.
 
freeCodeCamp: This program allows you to learn coding through an established curriculum before providing hands-on experience working on non-profit projects. You can earn free verified certificates in responsive web design, JavaScript algorithms and data structures, front-end libraries, data visualization, data analysis with Python, information security and many others. More than 40,000 graduates of the program have gotten jobs at tech companies like Google and Microsoft.
 
Khan Academy: Best known as a place for students to learn math skills, Khan Academy also offers courses on computer programming. Some of the courses are aimed at younger students for anyone in the family who wants to learn coding skills early.  
 
All of these programs, along with many others, are provided free of charge. Teaching yourself to code is easier than ever with so many options available.