Google’s Go leads the list of “languages to learn” among professional software developers, according to a new survey by HackerEarth. The How to keep developers happy: Send feedback after interviews and establish a no-interruption policy asked professionals and students about what languages they know and what languages they would like to learn. SQL, Java, and HTML/CSS are still the languages most developers use on a daily basis. 

The “like to learn” list looks like this:

Go                                   32%
Python                            24%
Kotlin                               21%
JavaScript (Node.js)        20%
Bash/shell/PowerShell    18%
Typescript                       16%
Scala                               15%
R (Rscript)                        14% 
 
Sachin Gupta, HackerEarth’s CEO and co-founder, said there’s been an uptick in interest for Go amongst developers as it was explicitly engineered to solve some of the issues with other programming languages and tools. 

“Go is lightweight with a focus on readability and combines the power and versatility of languages like Python with the security and performance of C and Java,” he said. “The ease of use and performance (plus support by Google) are making Go an increasingly popular choice for seasoned developers and students alike.”

Gupta added that Go is gaining popularity with data scientists also because it natively supports concurrency and works wonderfully with multicore processors and distributed systems. 

SEE: The top 10 languages for machine learning hosted on GitHub (free PDF)

As Liam Tung wrote on TechRepublic’s sister site ZDNet, “The desire for learning Go lines up with the results of a similar survey by remote developer hiring firm HackerRank. Go is used at Google, Netflix, American Express, Salesforce, IBM, Target, Twitch, Twitter, Uber, and Dropbox.”

In the Dice 2019 Tech Salary Report, Go was the programming language associated with the highest-paid roles. This is not surprising, given that key open-source tools that run modern data centers are based on Go, including the container deployment platform Docker and Google’s Kubernetes container management software.

Go Developer Survey

In April, Todd Kulesza shared the results of the Go project’s 2019 developer survey which found that most developers are using the language for web development, followed by database development, network programming, systems programming, and DevOps. Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is the most widely used code editor among Go developers.    

The survey of 10,975 developers also found that:

• Go’s use is still concentrated in tech companies, but Go is increasingly found in a wider variety of industries, such as finance and media.
• Respondents are using Go to solve similar problems, particularly building API/RPC services and CLIs, regardless of the size of organization they work in.
• Almost everyone in the Go ecosystem is now using modules, but some confusion around package management remains.
• High-priority areas for improvement include improving the developer experience for debugging, working with modules, and working with cloud services.
• VS Code and GoLand have continued to see increased use; they’re now preferred by three out of four respondent

Learn how to code with Go

There are many free online resources for people who want to learn more about Go. Here is a mix of books and hands-on tutorials:

• “Go Bootcamp” by Matt Aimonetti covers types, collection types, control flow, methods, interfaces, concurrency, and tips and tricks.
• Caleb Doxsey wrote both “Introducing Go: Build Reliable, Scalable Programs” for O’Reilly Media and “An Introduction to Programming in Go.” 
• Mark McGranaghan created Go by Example, a hands-on introduction to Go using 75 annotated example programs. 
• Jon Calhoun created a free resource, Gophercises as well as Web Development with Go and Test with Go, which are temporarily on sale for $149 each instead of $249.
• Udemy’s “Go: The Complete Developer’s Guide” is temporarily on sale. 
• Hackernoon’s “Basics of Golang [For Beginners]” is free. 

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