When you have just started taking baby steps in the world of programming, the feeling is just next level. There is so much to learn, so much to explore and so much to excel. In order to shape your career in software development, it is essential to know the big picture of software development such as types of software development, programming languages you should learn and so on. Knowing this would help you to effectively carve your path to learn coding.
Excited? Let's get started.
Let's first start with understanding different types of software development and then explore further about it.
Types of Software Development
Let's take a step back and just think for a moment, what do you want to do after learning to code? what do you want to do after learning programming? May be you want to take up a corporate IT job, may be you want to work as a freelancer or may be you want to work on your own startup, for the cool idea you had in your mind. Isn't it?
To grab the best of the opportunity and to become a successful software developer, it is important to keep up with what's going on in the software industry. So, wouldn't it be a good idea to understand the different types of software development, based on what is currently going on in the software industry job market? Yeah, instead of going by the theory of any book, I would like to categorize the different types of software development based on my experience working in the software field since more than a decade plus.
Here is how I would classify the different types of software development into 4 main buckets.
- Web Application Development
- Mobile Application Development
- Game Development
- Data Science & Machine Learning
Let's understand each of them in detail. Also, let's see which programming languages are most commonly been used for such software development, which is the most popular programming language and also the potential future programming language for each software development track.
Web Application Development
Websites are the classic example of web application development, and it is the most common trend of software application development, which is very much in-demand. Web application development can be divided into two parts.
Front-end Development
In simple words, front-end is something which is visible to us. Whenever you visit any website, the page you see on the browser is basically front-end. That nice fancy UI you see, is the fruit of front-end development. So, the next question you may have is, what are the programming languages used for front-end development? Yes, that's exactly the next thing we are going to cover now.
What are the programming languages used for front-end development?
The most commonly used programming languages for front-end development are
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
Which programming language you should learn first for front-end development?
Knowledge about HTML, CSS and JavaScript is must to become a front-end developer. Hence, you would have to learn all these three languages HTML, CSS and JavaScript to become a front-end developer. You may want to learn HTML first, next CSS and then JavaScript.
Back-end Development
While front-end is something which is visible to us, back-end is something which is happening behind the scenes. At high-level, back-end is the core engine of the website, which is catering the data to be shown on the front-end.
What are the programming languages used for back-end development?
The most commonly used programming languages for back-end development are
- Java
- C#
- Python
- PHP
- Ruby
- JavaScript
Which programming language you should learn first for back-end development?
My personal favorite is Java because that is the one I started with. However, it does not mean that you have to learn that first.
PHP is pretty easy to get started with, however, I would not recommend you to learn it first. The reason is, back-end development with PHP is old school now, and it is rarely being used for developing any new web applications. Hence, a big NO NO for PHP, from my side.
The one which is winning the race here is Python. The current trend is, most of the beginners who are first time learning coding languages are selecting Python as their first programming language. It is easy to learn and easy to use. May be that's the reason it is favorite amongst beginners.
To be honest, there isn't any rule of thumb which says, you must learn X programming language first. The best approach in my opinion would be to get started with learning programming language of your choice. Of course, you will have to do a bit of a homework to come up with your choice of programming language. Believe me, it will be fun!
Even if your goal is to be the back-end developer, it is good to have knowledge about HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Though not in detail as much as a front-end developer do, however, the basic knowledge is really essential.
Mobile Application Development
Do I need to tell you what is mobile application development? I am 100% sure, you must be already aware about it. The nice little apps we use on our smartphones are mobile applications. These mobile apps have been integral part of our daily life. Isn't it?
Mobile application development is mainly divide into two parts.
Let's go through them.
Android app Development
Android app development is all about developing the native mobile apps for the smartphones running on Android OS.
What are the programming languages used for android app development?
The most common programming languages for android app development are
- Java
- Kotlin
Which programming language you should learn first for android app development?
Java is the most commonly used in this realm. However, slowly and steadily Kotlin is becoming the preferred choice of language for developing native android apps. For most people, Java is still the first choice of language to learn. However, in my opinion, Kotlin shortly would be widely considered as a first choice to learn for android app development. Java is the present of native android app development, whereas Kotlin is the future of native android app development.
Java is the present of native android app development, whereas Kotlin is the future of native android app development.
iOS app Development
iOS app development is all about developing the native mobile apps for the smartphones running on iOS.
What are the programming languages used for iOS app development?
The most common programming languages for iOS app development are
- Objective-C
- Swift
Which programming language you should learn first for iOS app development?
Objective-C was widely been used for native iOS app development. However, after the introduction of Swift programming language, Swift has gained a lot of popularity and Objective-C is being lesser used in comparison to Swift. Hence, Swift seems to be the clear winner here. Swift programming language you should learn first for iOS development.
DART language with flutter SDK is a good candidate to get started with developing mobile apps which would work for both android as well iOS
Game Development
If you are a fan of gaming, game development would give you insights about how those games are actually developed. Let us take a look at the programming languages used for game development.
What are the programming languages used for game development?
The most common programming languages for game development are
- C#
- C++
Which programming language you should learn first for game development?
C++ can be a good candidate to learn first, for game development. Although C# and C++ are presently being used as most commonly used programming language for game development, RUST programming language is a new entry in this list of programming languages to be used for game development.
Data Science & Machine Learning
Data has become the secret weapon of the recent times in the online world. Data Science & Machine learning play a key role to make the data more meaningful. Data science & machine learning is one of the trends in software development in current times.
What are the programming languages used for DS & ML?
The most common programming languages for game development are
- Python
- R
- Matlab
- Scala
- Julia
Which programming language you should learn first for DS & ML?
Python takes a first place here as a programming language to learn first for Data science and Machine learning. Next one could be Scala. Julia is the recent addition to the list of programming languages used for Data Science and Machine learning.
Summary
This was the high-level overview about different types of software development, which are the most common ones as per the software industry job market. There are few other ones as well such as Systems development and so on. However, as a beginner, the ones which we have gone though in this article would be a good starting point to get started with understanding the different types of software development.
I hope you would have found this article useful. It would be great if you could share your thoughts/comments about it at techfundas.in@gmail.com. I would love to read them.
Also, if you are just a beginner, it would be worth to checkout this article which talks about Top 6 Myths you stop believing now about software developer.
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