Learning is an open gateway to millions of possibilities. It depends on how you take action and your ability to be persistent throughout the journey.
Coding is a very popular niche in the last decade and has become a major growth sector for business expansion. The development of extensive applications with automated functionalities covering the whole spectrum of user requirements has now shifted all businesses online to gain maximum reach and client satisfaction.
However, coding is technical, challenging, and time-consuming for many programmers. So, what might be the areas that should be considered to strengthen your programming skills? Let's Find out.
TOP 10 Programming Skills
To give the best guide to readers, the skills are technologies are aligned with each other to give a more direct specific approach. The skills are shared as follows:
1. Career Selection
Selecting your programming scope is an important step in your career life. There are various niches categorized vastly and some of them are as follows.
- Web development
- Project Management
- UI/UX Design
- Game Development
- Cloud Engineering
- Data Science
- Business Analytics
- Machine Learning Applications
- Automation
- Cybersecurity
All of the above fields are entirely vast in their horizon and it's near impossible to say that you could be the jack of all trades. Try selecting a niche that suits you and makes you dedicated.
2. Programming Skills
Before diving into languages, the fundamental programming skills should be learned including loops, if-else, switch cases, recursion, and function(modules) with dynamic programming.
The first and foremost step toward a coding career is to select a programming language. The popular languages in 2023 include Python, JavaScript, R language, Scala, C++, C#, Swift, Kotlin, Ruby, etc.
Python — Web Development, AI and ML apps/models, NLP, cloud applications Game development, browsers, and trading applications
JavaScript — Web development, AI/ML applications, cloud applications
R-language — Statistical language used for data science and AI/ML applications, cloud applications.
C++ — Web development, game development, cloud server applications
C# — Web and App development, cloud integrations, and Windows applications
PHP — Web development (client side)
Ruby — Web development and web crawling
Swift — Apple devices application covering mobile & web development, game development, and other system apps. C language is often used to create desktop/Mac applications.
Kotlin — Android applications building mobile applications, system applications, game development, and other applications.
3. OOP & DSA
For those of you who are new and unaware of these terms, OOP and DSA are the two pioneers of coding and logic building. OOP is often known as Object-Oriented Programming whereas the DSA is referred to as the Data Structures and Algorithms.
To give a basic crisp of knowledge, there are four principles in OOP listed as follows:
- Encapsulation
- Polymorphism
- Inheritance
- Abstraction
While, for the DSA, there are various algorithms (sort, search), including arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs, stacks, and queues in which we have to get hands-on practice on a few of them. Some of the most recommended and easy algorithms are:
- Bubble Sort
- Selection Sort (Fastest sorting algorithm)
- Insertion Sort
- Quicksort / Merge Sort / Count Sort (Choice)
Search Algorithms:
- Binary Search
- Linear Search
- Binary Search Tree (BST)
- Interpolation Search
Note: Getting coding knowledge is not enough. Try to understand the algorithm knowledge w.r.t time & space complexities in terms of best, medium, and worst scenarios.
If you are choosing python, these algorithms would be really easy to understand as python is very popular, flexible and understandable language.
4. Analytical Skills
The first three are the prior steps of learning coding foundations. The fun appears when you decide to choose a selective niche (ex. Web development, data analytics, UI/UX design and automation, etc.). The analytical skills itself is a huge, diversified field covering a range of employment opportunities.
Under the Analytical skills, the focus should be more on data analysis, data filtering, and Business intelligence as they play a major role in the analysis industry. Learning Python with ML and cloud fundamentals would be a big bonus to your technical skills.
The popular and prior knowledge and tools used in the data analysis include:
- Excel
- Tableau/ Power BI/ Qlik Sense (Data Visualization tools)
- Python
- SQL
- ML (Optional)
- AWS / Azure / Google Cloud (Optional)
With these tools, you can surely qualify for the interviews and achieve excellence in your skillset.
5. Web Development Skills
The development area is another big industry and development is further classified into 3 subdomains:
- Front-End Development (focuses on client-side, website front layout)
- Back-End Development (focuses on the backend logic running behind the website.)
- Full-Stack Development (combo of front-end and backend development)
Here, the developers need to be familiar with various technologies to keep the website active, and fast with smooth user experience. Websites need to be updated eventually for better client satisfaction.
The popular technologies used by companies like Google Meta Netflix Technology Blog Amazon App Developer Microsoft + Open Source IBM Developer are as follows:
- Python — Django, Flask, Pyramid
- JavaScript (JS) — React.js, Angular.js, Node.js, Vue.js, Next.js, three.js)
- TypeScript
- C# (ASP.NET & .NET Core)
- HTML/CSS
- Databases (SQL Server, MySQL, IBMdb2, MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis)
- Automation (Selenium etc.)
- API
6. Cloud Computing Skills
Cloud is an essential element for bulky data storage and secure web services to keep websites active, secure, and protected. The concept emerged when the big FAANG companies decided to create a digital cloud system where they provided thousands of services, Operating systems (Linux, Windows online), databases, and other solutions into their big portal — named cloud.
The cloud services are further classified as SaaS (Software as a Service), DaaS (Data as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and FaaS (Function as a Service) providing services according to the requirements.
The major cloud platforms most recommended and liked by the users are:
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud
- Salesforce
- Apache Hadoop
7. Project Management Skills
Project Management is a vast field and has a place in all industrial sectors. Being a project manager means the duties of a team and team leader of planning, collaborating, organizing, tracking, and delivering projects effectively.
The prime concepts for Project Management learning include Project Development from planning to execution, and deployment, Agile Methodology, Different types of Models (Waterfall, V model), SCRUM, and team member roles.
As a person pursuing project management, the following tools are more likely to be used in the industry providing strategic thinking:
8. UI/UX Designing
Graphic design is one of the in-trend booming niches and has given a variety of designs in illustrations, videos, and websites as well. The UI/UX is the techy area of graphic designing where several features, animations, and visual effects are implemented on the website to give a more pleasing user experience.
Currently, the top trending tools for UI/UX designing software are Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, Webflow, and Framer Team with other Adobe Creative Cloud tools.
9. App Development
App development is a branch of Web Development that now has fully occupied the attention globally due to the ease and use of our smartphones. The websites of companies launch their apps for mobile users to gain more reach and ease.
The app development covers all the above branches as all apps are created w.r.t some fields whether sports, new, technology, project management, games, chat and video call apps, etc. In order to create mobile apps, you can use the Languages Kotlin, Flutter, Dart, and Swift to create apps.
Flutter is powered by Google, while Swift is developed by @Apple. Languages like Kotlin, Flutter, and dart can create mobile apps for both the Android — Android Developers and IOS applications.
10. Cyber Security
Cyber Security is a very separate and unique chain of Computer Science as it is a practice of protecting critical systems and sensitive information from digital attacks. Also known as information technology (IT) security, cybersecurity measures are designed to combat threats against networked systems and applications. This helps organizations find experts to analyze the software, and websites to check whether they are fully protected from malicious bugs, viruses, and malware.
Cybersecurity also opens new doors connected to the blockchain, ethical hacking, and information security which interlinks cybersecurity and plays a key essential role in preventing cyber-attacks like DDOS- Dist. Denial of Service, malware, Ransomware, and advanced authentication systems to prevent data loss. For more info, check Authentication Systems and Security Threats
The best thing about cyber security is that you don't have to learn a lot of programming but should be familiar with concepts like bug testing, penetration testing, firewall, cryptography, anti-virus and digital forensics, and Linux for scripting and some certifications from Cisco, CISSP and GSEC certifications.
Summary
So, there folks, you have the 10 most in-demand programming skills that offer high-salary package jobs with hybrid, remote, and other facilities to strengthen your career and let you ace your programming and development skills. However, the list doesn't imply that the mentioned fields are the only hotspots for career development. Fields like game development, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency are all very new techy stuff that are also in the search list for careers. Have a look at these fields also and we wish you success in your career selection & development.
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