In choosing what to learn next, the best guiding principle is to plant yourself in one discipline and learn tools as a means to grow. Tools will always change. Ultimately, it’s curiosity and genuine interest in programs that should fuel the drive to learn new tools and adapt to tech’s evolving landscape.

Amazon Corretto is a no-cost, multiplatform, production-ready distribution of the Open Java Development Kit ; Corretto comes with long-term support; Corretto is certified as compatible with the Java SE standard; And support popular OSs: Amazon Linux 2, Windows, and macOS. Amazon Corretto 8 is in Preview.

Programming language: Formal language that translates into instructions for the computer to do things.

Source code :  Files containing text in programming language specific format. Files are where the actual programming is done

Building/Compiling :  Transforming source code to machine readable format such as executables.

Debugging:  Finding out problems in the source code either with a debugger tool or some other debugging method

Open-source:  ”Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.” -Wikipedia

IDE:  Integrated Development Environment is an advanced text editor with support for compiling, debugging and other software construction related activities.

API :  Application Programming Interface. Set of defined methods that can be used to communicate between software components

UML — Unified Modeling Language. Modeling language that is used to visualize architecture of a system in a standard way

SQL — Structured Query Language. Used to manage data in relational databases

No matter what you do, there is no shortcut to learn programming. Practice, ask and create things over and over again — It’s the only way you will get where you want to be. I promise you it will pay back eventually.

Hello World The future of work will be very different. Irrespective of your job, it will become important for everyone to learn how to code.

Coding helps enrich your computational thinking, which is powerful in making decisions.

The traditional resume will go away and hiring will happen based on your skills first.

Did you know that 1 in 4 developers learned to code before they could drive?

It’s never too early — or too late! — to start coding.

All the developers who started coding after the age of 26, 36% are now senior or even higher-level developers, growing quickly in their careers.

Of the roughly 39,000 developers surveyed across all professional levels, more than a quarter of developers wrote their first piece of code before they were 16 years old.

Of the 17 countries represented in the survey with at least 100 respondents, the UK stands out with the highest share of developers who started coding as young as 5 to 10 years old. The majority of those developers are in their 30s and 40s today.

Nearly all developers have an insatiable thirst for learning

On average, developers know 4 languages, and they want to learn 4 more. The degree of thirst for learning varies by generations — young developers between 18 and 24 plan to learn 6 languages, whereas folks older than 35 only plan to learn 3.

Since programming is centered on independent research aimed at solving new challenges, self-teaching is a major part of being a successful developer.

Developers are learning the languages employers are looking for most.

When you compare the most in-demand languages by employers with that of the most common languages that developers know, there is no gap. Java, JavaScript, C and C++, and Python all top the list of languages developers know.

Java, has been popular in the world of financial services for years. C dominates hardware because of its performance, direct low-level hardware API, and availability of compilers across many platforms. And C# is more common among government organizations.

Programming languages aren’t adopted in the industry as quickly as they are created, but JavaScript is changing the game with its frameworks.

A number of the most in-demand frameworks are JavaScript frameworks — it’s the only language versatile enough to build frontend, backend, mobile and browser extensions.

Hence, JavaScript is ruling the web. Most often, employers want developers who know AngularJS, Node.js, and React.

There’s a big opportunity for developers to learn React as a marketable skill that companies need today.

React has the biggest delta between percentage of developers who know the framework and percentage of employers who look for candidates with this skillset.

Almost all employers prioritize problem-solving skills first.

Problem-solving skills are almost unanimously the most important qualification that employers look for….more than programming languages proficiency, debugging, and system design.

Smaller companies look for framework proficiency in candidates more than medium-sized to large companies.

What you do matters more than what’s on your resume There's a popular belief that recruiters favor candidates with CS degrees from prestigious universities. But it turns out that they actually care about what you've done — not where you went to school.

An overwhelming majority of hiring managers said they look for proven skill, such as previous work, years of experience, and projects/GitHub.

Qualifications that generally bolster the resume (prestige of degree, education level, skill endorsements or certificates) rank the lowest among what companies care about the most.

Companies are looking at GitHub and projects to supplement resumes and evaluate skills better. C-level positions, including founders, CTOs and VPs, valued GitHub projects more than years of experience. Prestige of degree dropped even further in importance for these folks.

Google’s Go offers high concurrency, fast compilation and, of course, widespread support from its creator.

Google also spurred the use of Kotlin when it moved its canonical Android language away from Java.

Python is the one, JavaScript may be the most in-demand language by employers, but Python wins the heart of developers across all ages, according to our Love-Hate index. Python is also the most popular language that developers want to learn overall, and a significant share already knows it.

Python is known for its simplicity, readability, and vast possibilities of scientific libraries. It’s also growing as part of introductory computer science courses.

Younger developers dislike newer languages (like Go, Kotlin, and Scala) more so than older developers. In fact, Go creates one of the greatest divides. Developers aged 18-24 don’t care for it, but 45-54 year-olds consider it one of their most loved languages. The inverse is true about JavaScript.

Node.js is the newest jamNode.js wins as most loved framework by the largest share of developers.As the only method for backend JavaScript, Node.js is favored across all ages.

VIM for the win VIM beats all other editors by a landslide. Fans say its powerful keyboard commands are a crucial component of why it’s loved by developers everywhere.

Programming is mostly about reading previous code, researching what is needed and how it fits with the current system, and planning the writing of features with small, testable increments. The actual writing of lines of code is probably only 10% of the whole process.

Do not think about programming as writing lines of code. Programming is a logic-based creativity that needs nurturing.

Planning before jumping into code is a good thing, but even good things can hurt you when you do too much of them. Too much healthy water might poison you.

Do not look for a perfect plan. That does not exist in the world of programming. Look for a good-enough plan, something that you can use to get started.