I read somewhere that a programmer should learn a new programming language every year, but if you cannot, I suggest you know the following five programming languages to do well in your career.

Every company loves a polyglot programmer and an all-rounder who is versatile enough to write a quick script and can also write complex Java programs. In fact, it’s almost mandatory for a senior developer to learn more than one language. Job interviewers are giving more attention to an engineer with good experience with multiple languages.

I personally like software engineers who have substantial experience in either C++ or Java and can write scripts in Groovy, Perl, or Python. Often a tiny script is quick and good enough for the ad-hoc task, and I don’t want my programmer spending a full day in Java to write a program to read CSV files or grab a message from a TCP/UDP port.

Why did I choose these five programming languages? My reasons are simple and practical. I have chosen languages based on their usage, paradigm, and popularity. For example, you cannot ignore Java if you want to do application development and looking for a job. So is JavaScript, which is almost everywhere on the web. C is the language I strongly believe developers should learn at the very start of their career because it will help them get closer to the system and understand key programming concepts often abstracted in other languages. Python is my choice of scripting language, although you can also substitute with Perl or Groovy.

Similarly, learning an object-oriented and functional programming language like Haskell or Scala will widen your thinking and programming sense. You will find more reasons to learn these top five programming languages.

The top 5 programming languages to learn

1. Python

Python is one of the most taught languages in school. Python has replaced Java in many academic courses as a preferred language in the United States. What will you gain by learning Python? A lot.

Python can be used as a scripting language and a proper object-oriented language for a large project. Many popular websites, including Reddit, are built upon Python frameworks like Django. Recently, many other large organizations have been switching to the Python-based framework. Python is also increasingly used for new technology like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science. No wonder it has got some awesome machine learning libraries like TensorFlow, Scikit-Learn, and others.

I personally use Python for writing scripts, which is very useful for doing something quickly, forgetting about compiling, packaging and then using. Just write Python scripts for ad-hoc tasks.

2. Java

Java is one of the most popular languages of the last two decades and rules the world of server-side application development. It also holds a sizable market share in mobile games and application development using Android and the enterprise web development world. Java was created with the idea, “write once run anywhere,” but over time, Java actually ran everywhere.

You should learn Java to build robust, scalable server-side applications. You can create projects of any complexity in Java; it has tools, technology, and an extensive community to help. Some of the most prominent organizations, like banks and insurance companies, use Java, and you can reach the masses by writing Android apps.

3. JavaScript

In this list, you can replace Java with C++, Python or Ruby, but honestly, there is no replacement for JavaScript in today’s world.

In the last five years, JavaScript has totally dominated the client-side world. It is a client-side scripting language with many frameworks and libraries like Node JS, Angular, and React. Some part of JavaScript’s overwhelming success is jQuery, which truly changed how people use JavaScript on the client side.

Knowledge of this language has helped us to decide which feature should be implemented server-side and which can be handled on the client side. For example, many validations we used to do on the server side were migrated to the client side.

4. C Programming

You cannot be an actual programmer without knowing C or C++. This is a very strong statement, but I am saying this from my years of experience. It’s one of the languages which you must know.

I learned C during my training and learned many key programming concepts along the way, e.g., structure, array, pointers, memory management, and more.

C is still the preferred language for system programming. It is also one of the oldest mainstream languages, surviving for over four decades. By the way, if you want to learn C++ instead of C, they are pretty similar, and C++ allows you to write low-level code for systems and drivers.

It’s also one of the important languages for game developers because of the high performance it offers.

5. Scala

Scala is a language that was created based on the best practices of the last 20 years. It is also a functional programming language, so it offers a different paradigm than object-oriented programming; knowing both will improve your thinking and code sense.

Though many functional programming languages are available, such as Haskell, I have chosen Scala because, as a Java developer, I found learning Scala easier than learning Haskell.

You can take that as a challenge and learn Haskell, but for practical purposes, I think learning Scala is more relevant for Java developers. For C++ programmers, Haskell makes more sense to me. To be honest, you can choose any functional programming language, but choose one with commercial demand.

The bottom line

In my humble opinion, studying languages that offer different paradigms is the best way to improve your programming skill and help you to do your day-to-day tasks effectively. Ideally, a programmer’s toolset should include one language which is close to the system like C or C++, one object-oriented language like Java, Python, or C++, one functional programming language like Scala or Haskell, and one powerful scripting language like Perl, Python or Ruby, plus JavaScript, because it’s used everywhere.

This article was written by Javin Paul for HackerNoon and was edited and republished with permission.