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Rank 131Down 1
#13 in Programming Languages
of 20 ranked entries
C
Dennis Ritchie · first appeared 1972
Everything else on this list ultimately sits on top of something written in C — the kernel, the runtime, the compiler. Learning it is still the fastest way to understand what a higher-level language is actually doing underneath. Recorded specifics: first appeared 1972, paradigm Procedural, avg. salary 115 K. Panel highlighted closest practical language to understanding real machine behaviour and still the language most operating systems and runtimes are built in. The reservation on record is manual memory management offers essentially no safety net.
Systems
Score breakdown
How C earned 80.4
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Programming Languages.
- Ecosystem healthweight 30%
- 82.6
- Hiring realityweight 25%
- 77.7
- Long-term maintenance costweight 25%
- 79.8
- Performance at scaleweight 20%
- 81.2
On the record
Recorded detail
| First appeared | 1972 |
|---|---|
| Paradigm | Procedural |
| Avg. salary | 115 K |
| Rating | 7.9 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Closest practical language to understanding real machine behaviour
- Still the language most operating systems and runtimes are built in
Where it gives ground
- Manual memory management offers essentially no safety net
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
Rank 01Editor’s pickPython
Guido van Rossum · first appeared 1991
The default teaching language and the default data science language at once, a rare combination that keeps the hiring pool deep at every experience level. Performance is the honest tradeoff, patched over by C-extension libraries rather than solved.
97.5/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 02Editor’s pickTypeScript
Microsoft · first appeared 2012
Optional static typing gradually made "it compiled, so it probably works" a reasonable thing to say about a JavaScript codebase, the single biggest reason large frontend teams standardised on it.
95.4/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
Rank 03Editor’s pickJavaScript
Brendan Eich · first appeared 1995
Still the only language that runs natively in every browser on Earth, a monopoly no competitor has meaningfully challenged in three decades despite genuine attempts.
94.1/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
Rank 04Go
Google · first appeared 2009
Google built it specifically to compile fast and read the same regardless of who wrote it, and that opinionated simplicity is exactly why infrastructure teams standardised on it for services that need to just stay up.
92.1/100 Top 49 score3Up 3
Rank 05Editor’s pickRust
Mozilla / Rust Foundation · first appeared 2010
Memory safety without a garbage collector, enforced by a compiler strict enough that beginners routinely fight it for weeks — the payoff is production services that categorically cannot have a whole class of memory bugs.
91.8/100 Top 49 scoreNewNew entry
Rank 06Java
Sun Microsystems / Oracle · first appeared 1995
Two and a half decades of enterprise codebases that are not going anywhere means Java hiring demand never really dropped, whatever the language’s reputation in newer-language circles.
90.2/100 Top 49 score2Up 2
Rank 07C#
Microsoft · first appeared 2000
Microsoft’s answer to Java, and the modern versions have quietly closed most of the syntax gaps that used to make the comparison unflattering — Unity’s dominance in game development is its own separate reason to learn it.
89.0/100 Top 49 score3Down 3
Rank 08SQL
IBM / ANSI standard · first appeared 1974
Not a general-purpose language and never trying to be one — every data-adjacent role from analyst to backend engineer eventually needs it, which makes it the most quietly load-bearing skill on this entire list.
87.0/100 Top 49 score3Down 3
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