Which is the easiest programming language to learn?
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Which is the easiest programming language to learn?

27 Jul 2017

There are so many programming languages you can learn, but if you’re looking to start off with something easier, which one is best?

For anyone who wants to get into the ever-expanding tech world, one of the primary skills for a vast number of jobs is programming.

Depending on the job, certain languages are better to learn than others, and this affects what the most in-demand languages are, too.

However, for someone starting out, which language is supposed to be the easiest one to learn?

WP Engine surveyed almost 1,000 computer programmers to determine how different programming languages compared. The computer programmers were two-thirds male and one-third female.

They were asked a series of questions about a variety of programming languages to determine the best ones for certain goals as well as the easiest and most complex ones for someone to pick up.

While C++ was considered the most versatile programming language, it was far from the easiest one to learn.

Java, C and JavaScript all followed in the versatility ranks, but JavaScript also proved to be the most creative language. This comes as no surprise as JavaScript is an open-source code that utilises a combination of C, C++ and Java functions, which are designed to allow programmers to pick the language that works best for them.

So, which programming language took the top spot for being easy to learn? HTML.

WP Engine programming language survey. Infographic: WP Engine

As the backbone of many websites, HTML is considered to be the simplest programming language for those who are just getting started. HTML was also named the most intuitive language by those surveyed.

The ease of the language is also favoured by the more experienced programmers. Ranging from one to 20 years of experience, HTML was selected as the language developers were most comfortable using.

Python was the second-easiest programming language to learn, followed by JavaScript.

WP Engine programming language survey. Infographic: WP Engine

Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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