I'm not an industry expert or a working developer, but in my opinion most jobs are not going to be greenfield environments which are using the newest and coolest tricks or languages, they are MOSTLY going to be existing shops with existing code bases, and Java is up there as one of the top 5 programming languages in the world. So knowing Java won't hurt you in any way, and will open up other prospects for employment. Answer from castleguar on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is java still worth learning?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is Java still worth learning?
August 12, 2019 -

I understand that all languages have specific advantages and disadvantages but I wanted to hear some more specific opinions on Java.

I just graduated with my bachelor's in computer science and am looking for work now (any bonus tips on how hunting would be great as well). We never did any work in Java, instead using Python and C++. I don't find a lot of Java specific postings but many mention it alongside C++ and other object oriented knowledge.

The general idea that I hold is that Java is good for existing code, but most new projects are using other languages, especially since Android apps are moving more towards Kotlin. Do others agree or am I way off? Would it be worth it for me to write a quick Java program to throw in my GitHub to boost my resume?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r › programming › comments › ecddoy › 10_reasons_why_java_is_still_worth_learning_in
r/programming - 10 Reasons Why Java Is Still Worth Learning In 2020
December 20, 2019 - In fact most of the arguments put forth by the author boil down to this: Java is worth learning because it's popular. A much better argument would be: describe the problems that Java was or is supposed to solve, and show that most languages ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is java dying soon?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is Java dying soon?
April 5, 2020 -

(First post hah)
I'm a student, 19 years old, starting the 2nd year of the Computer Engineering career.
So far, I have been learning Object Oriented Programming through the Java language, but I remembered something.
There seems to be less and less devices that operate this language and getting overwhelmed by Python, Ruby or C++, and I have the fear that if I keep giving attention to Java, in just a few years it will be so worthless to the point I will be lost onto the other good languages (I think I want to learn C++ & Python soon).
I need you to answer this: Will Java still remain as an important OOP language? For how long? How relevant is it today?

Thank you so much C:

Top answer
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Beginning programmers are always very worried about picking the wrong language, but that's the worst thing to worry about.

First of all, Java is one of the most popular languages, still, and it will be around for many, many years.

Java is so popular, and so successful, that there are a few specific things Java used to do well, like web applets and feature phone games, that used to be popular but are now dead. If you only consider those, it might seem like Java is dying - but that ignores the hundreds of other fields where Java is more popular than ever - including web servers, Android apps, scientific computing, enterprise desktop apps, and so much more.

Most importantly, though, even if by some miracle Java stopped being popular in the future, it will not have been a waste to learn Java! The same concepts live on in other programming languages, and all of the skills you learn will be just as useful no matter what language you use.

When I first learned to program I learned Pascal. It was a very popular language at the time and today it's not very popular at all. But it didn't hurt me at all, it was a great experience and everything I learned about Pascal was useful in the future with every language I learned after that.

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Android is java, there is 100 million devices right there.

I know Java, along with a handful of other languages used on the JVM (kotlin, scala). I also use Python quite a bit, C++/ObjC (though I use it much less), and I dabble in JS if needed. I've written perl, php, pascal just to new a few others. Once you learn the fundamentals of CS, you should be able to grasp any C like language pretty quickly. (even C++ if you just keep it simple)

What you should focus on is learning object orientation. Relationships between different objects/classes, their interfaces, and how to actually construct software. Don't worry about language so much yet, you will quickly get the point where you know 5+ languages.

Now go read this book. https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X

Also, I have to say that knowing Java and Python is a sought after combination.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/javahelp › best resources to learn java in 2020 ?
r/javahelp on Reddit: Best resources to learn Java in 2020 ?
September 5, 2020 -

I am new to Java and i am not able to decide which Resources are good to learn in 2020. Most i find are video series from 2010 or 2015. The new boston YouTube channel idk if that video series is still relevant bur currently i am referring to his tutorials. Any suggestions on which book/websites/YouTube channel is relevant and good enough in 2020 ?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/java › is it worth learning java in 2023 or another language?
r/java on Reddit: Is it worth learning Java in 2023 or another language?
September 25, 2023 -

I know they've been saying Java is dying for who knows how long, but it still stands and runs strong.

I don't doubt that Java is a fantastic language despite the hate it gets.

Is Java worth learning in 2023 and for the future, or would time be better spent learning another language?

Is Kotlin the future of Java?

I've seen that Java has been trending downward, hence why I'm asking this question.

My goal is to become a full-on backend developer (currently full-stack with JavaScript).

Once Java is learned, what are some advanced topics one should learn, such as most used design patterns, etc.?

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First of all, the language you learn is largely irrelevant. Whats important is concepts. Whats an ORM, how does it work in general. Whats the Request-response Model, whats the difference between Ajax and WebSocket? How do Iterator work, whats a type system, what are subtypes, whats covariance and contravariance. Those are all fundamental questions that you will learn when you learn either Java, or C#, or one of the myriad other languages out there.

If you know the concepts picking up a new language is easy. The first OOP language is diffucult, the first functional language is difficult, and the first prototype-based language is difficult. After that, picking up new languages becomes comparatively easy as you already know how stuff works in general.

So the choice doesn't even matter as much as you think.

That being said, Java doesn't get "all the hate". There are a few vocal groups that shit on Java, just as there are a few vocal groups out there that shit on other languages.

Java isn't declining, on the contrary, it is still going very strong. The ecosystem of languages has become more diverse, but the existence of more programming language on the JVM basically ensured that the JVM and Java will be there for a very long time to come.

If you learn Java now, chances are good that you can work with Java until you retire, should you choose to.

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People with no/low visibility to large enterprise codebases always claim Nodejs /flask or whatever is replacing Java.

Dont worry.

Many of the large codebases, if not most, are written and maintained with Java. And Java is always evolving. Learn Spring framework, Hibernate, etc and combine with knowledge of databases, cloud, containers etc and you will be ok

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/java › general thoughts of learning java as first language?
r/java on Reddit: General thoughts of learning Java as first language?
December 23, 2018 -

I've had some really mixed reviews for learning Java first. I plan on applying for jobs mid-2019 and I'd like to get one language down really well before I move onto others. From what I've been told, Java is a little more difficult than most languages, so I'm thinking if I start with it moving onto others will be somewhat easy, especially something like Python, because the same concepts are used in both.

Several people I've met have been very against me starting off with Java. I've really enjoyed learning Java and created several programs, over 150 Leetcodes, and doing Advent of Code in it. I've only been doing it for three months but I honestly think I'm fairly good at it now; my boyfriend is a Java expert who has been able to answer questions google can't to deepen my understanding.

I suppose I'm just wondering if this is the right language to start off with, or if I should heed the advice several have given me and start with something else, like Python?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › should i learn java or stick to python?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Should I learn Java or stick to Python?
August 24, 2019 -

I have been studying programming for the last six months. For the first four months I studied Python, and then I started studying studying data structures and algorithms. For data structures and algorithms, I picked the books where the code was written in Python. Now that I am about to finish that, I have decided to pick Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick. In this book all the code is written in Java.

I want to learn both Java and Python, and I will learn Java at some point. My question is whether I should start learning it right now or not? I know it's not necessary, but I think it will be much easier to follow the book if I have some understanding of Java.

Why am I confused?

Well, I have watched videos, read blogs about people recommending to stick to one language when starting out. So, I am scared to start a new language thinking I might forget Python or get into a situation where I don't understand either of these languages.

Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is it efficient to learn java as first language for 2021?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is it efficient to learn Java as first language for 2021?
January 7, 2021 -

Last year, with all the extra time I found stuck at home, I finally decided to learn a few programming languages as a career shift. I am in my late 20s and I've decided that coding for a living should be my top priority. I studied Java for around 6 months and got hyped making my own simple apps (I usually learn fast), but I kinda drifted away from it and haven't done any programming for 2 months to focus on Japanese.

I am still full of motivation and intent but I'm starting to doubt if Java is even worth the time anymore. Should I switch to Kotlin and later Go, skipping Java completely?

I'd love to start applying for junior jobs mid-late 2022.

TL:DR Want to work as a coder in 2022, is studying Java a waste of time?

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Quora
quora.com › Why-should-we-learn-Java-in-2020
Why do we need to learn Java in 2020? - Quora
August 26, 2019 - Answer (1 of 122): thanks for the ask. Depends on why you are learning. If to find a job and make a living, then yes (in most places) If for pleasure or just to learn programing, then no. It’s certainly not fun, and not particularly easy to learn for beginners. Expanding on the “make a livin...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is it still worth it to learn java?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is it still worth it to learn Java?
February 9, 2024 -

Last year i went through Java course, but due inexperience (and honestly i wasn't exactly good at it) i didn't manage to get any job.

Now i'm used to my new job and got over some bad episodes, so i think i'm ready to try again, but on my own pace ani probably take it more like a hobby for now.

But is it still worth it to re-learn what i knew and continue my growth or should i stuck with different language?

I mostly want to do games for now (found some graphics engine for Java), but i still want to try learn how to do apps websites or AI in case i would decide to pursue some jobs again.

I heard/read a lot of complains about Java so i right now i'm not sure where to start now. If JavaScript or other languages are better for beginner like me.

Thanks for help.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › what version of java should i learn and does it matter for a beginner?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: What Version of Java Should I Learn and Does it Matter For a Beginner?
June 28, 2023 -

Hi, I'm enrolled in a programming course and we are about to start with Java and saw that they will use Java 8 in all the courses (the classes are pre-recorded, and it's a free course by Oracle) which I read Oracle won't be giving much support, on the other hand, I was gifted a Udemy course that teaches Java 15, should I worry about the versions they use? I'm in college but want to spend the summer learning more about Java since I only did the basics in class but I don't know how much the version affects my learning

Top answer
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It won't matter for quite a while. The basics hasnt changed much, and you will most probably be focusing on learning the ins and outs of data types, classes, OOP, simple algorithms, etc. When you get to a point where you got the fundamentals down, and you have to start working with larger frameworks like Spring Boot MVC applications, then, and only then, does it become important which JDK you are running. And even then, it doesn't hurt to switch it up a little bit between projects to force feed yourself some compatibility experiences. If you find a course, or a book, or whichever that you like, then just go with it, install whatever version they use, and worry about deprecated functions and syntaxes later. Hope it makes sense
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Imagine if learning the latest version (17 or so at this point) was important and everything else was outdated. Guess what? People would quit programming. Do you really want to learn a language that, in a year, becomes outdated, and all you learned has been replaced by something new? What makes you think studying Java 15 now, won't be obsolete next year? The fact of the matter is you can do with stuff as old as Java 5 and that is like 15 years old or more, though I'd say, Java 8 is where the next set of useful changes come in (lambdas and streams). But even there, some programmers don't use these features at all. You can program without them, but you should probably learn them at some point. I just heard a colleague summarize changes from Java 8 to Java 17, and past 8, I don't think there was anything I thought was super important. It's not like you throw away what you learn in Java 8. Instead, you add knowledge on top of it. I will say some web stuff tends to get older over time, but languages tend to hold up for quite a while even as newer stuff comes out. When Python 3 came out years ago, it was not entirely backwards compatible with Python 2. That is, a Python 2 program could break in Python 3. This was considered an error, but if a language makes mistakes, I suppose it's best to change it early before it gets too popular. Code lasts a LONG time. You don't want to write code in 2023, then have to rewrite in 2024, then again in 2025. It's a waste of time. The code has to be able to run years afterwards. Where I work, we have code that was written around 2001 in Java. We upgraded it to use Java 5, but really, not that much. It still used all the classes that were around in Java 3 which still work even if it's considered "outdated". There's just way too much code to ever rewrite it. For one thing, it's even hard to write equivalent and better code when the program is so big and it's not clear what was being implemented. The logic is convoluted, the business logic is not spec'ed out. Programmers think it's easy to rewrite code. Imagine, for example, there's some tax preparation program written in C. You want to write it in, say, C#. If you don't know how taxes work, then some of the code you are translating won't make sense to you. You might end up deleting code that's important because you don't understand why it's there to begin with. It won't hurt to learn Java 8, but if you feel like learning Java 15, it's basically Java 8 plus more stuff.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is it worth learning java in 2024?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is it worth learning Java in 2024?
January 3, 2024 -

Hello there! Lately it has crossed my mind to learn or do some side project with a new technology or one that I have barely touched in the past and that could also help me grow professionally in my current job or get a better one.

I've been thinking about Java, because of the stability, the support, that it is completely object-oriented, etc.

I have already worked with Java in the past, several years ago, so I wouldn't start from scratch. I have been working as a Software Engineer for about 9 years with the same technologies (PHP, JavaScript and Python) but I would like something different from that.

I work in a fintech, and there are plans to create new microservices and one option is to use Java, but since it is not my strength, I probably won't get into that project. In addition, I would also like to apply (later obviously) to a FAANG.

Even though I have been working in other languages for several years, do you think it is worth spending time learning and strengthening my knowledge in Java? Do you think it can help me improve in some way in my career as a software engineer?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r › learnjava
Learn Java
January 27, 2011 - With the amount of complexity involved in terms of volume of data, different network and proxy configs for different sources, auth mechanisms, etc. it's difficult to just follow one solution and test it without having perfect understanding of it. I am finding it difficult to navigate this whole thing and given the workload, deadlines and how occupied other team members are, I am reluctant to ask for help. Is learning Java+Springboot worth it right now considering AI layoffs? Should ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is java even worth learning?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is Java even worth learning?
July 31, 2022 -

For the past week I've been studying Java. I've gotten pretty far and know quite a bit now, but I'm still struggling to figure out if it's worth it.

I started learning because I wanted to make an android wifi tethering program. I understand it's only useful if you know what you're doing and what you want, but in a broader scope, is java useful? It seems dead and boring from what I've looked up about it.

I still wanna learn it and become somewhat fluent with it, but I don't know, I just don't wanna waste my time. (To clarify, I certainly don't think it's a waste of time. I see any knowledge gained as a benefit)

There's other stuff I'm wanting to learn also, like game development. I wasn't gonna use java for it, and it seems like it's not commonly used for game development either.

I guess I'm getting side tracked. Is java worth learning?