The first rule of building a career is to have the right skill set for the career you want to pursue. This is especially true in tech, where different types of coding jobs require you to be “fluent” in different languages. Which programming languages you’ll need to know specifically varies from job to job, but there are some that you will need to know regardless since their application is almost universal.

The CollegEnroll team has put together this guide to help you figure out which coding languages you should be learning when attending a coding bootcamp.

When it comes to programming languages, you can go high or you can go low. Specifically, you can learn high-level languages that are easier to learn even though they can take computers longer to translate and interpret. Or, you can learn low-level languages which computers can deal with much more quickly, but will be more difficult for you to pick up.

This is because high-level languages are closer to how we humans think, whereas low-level languages are written similarly to how computers like to process information. Almost all programming and coding bootcamps teach high-level programming languages.

As mentioned before, the career you want to pursue will determine which languages you should learn in bootcamp. For example, three of the most common jobs that bootcamp graduates are eligible for include Web Developer, Mobile Developer, and Data Scientist. And all three jobs require specific languages to be mastered.

  • Web Developer: Whether you want to be a front-end, back-end, or full-stack developer, there are four languages that you must pick when attending bootcamp – HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, and Python. Web developers need a firm grasp of these languages in order to create software, applications (apps), and websites.
  • Mobile Developer: The biggest challenge for mobile developers is to create cross-platform versions of their apps, i.e. apps that can run on different smartphone operating systems, namely Android and iOS. Mobile developers must master Java to create Android apps, as well as Swift and Objective-C for iOS app development.
  • Data Scientist: A data scientist has to go beyond computer science, using statistics alongside programming languages to organize, analyze, and build data models. At the advanced level, data scientists could find themselves dealing with machine learning and AI. Languages like Python, SQL, and R are a must for budding data scientists.

Choosing a coding language to start with can be a daunting task – after all, there are almost 700 different programming languages out there.

However, the programming languages you learn to code at bootcamps only have to be the ones that interest you and will be needed for the job you want after graduating. Along with the languages mentioned above, here are a couple more that are worth the time and effort that goes into learning them:

  • Ruby on Rails: Ruby is a key language for back-end developers, and Rails is the framework that Ruby is taught in conjunction with. Ruby on Rails is quite beginner-friendly for those new to coding, and is widely used by some of the most popular service websites out there.
  • C# and .NET: For software and game developers who want to create on Microsoft platforms, the easy-to-read C# language and the .NET framework it’s built on are good starting points. A lot of the banking and airline industries also primarily use C# and .NET.

Always remember that the career path you wish to pursue will be the most important factor in determining which programming languages you should learn. As you learn new languages, you will find patterns about how each is similar or different to the others, making it easier to keep adding languages to your programming vocabulary.