So, you have determined that you want to start programming but are running into a problem right off the bat. You can't decide what programming language to pick!

In the beginning, you will spend a reasonable amount of time learning and building with the language you choose. If you invest a ton of this time into training and education, you will want the best ROI you can get! 

Programming is complicated and does take commitment. So how do you know which language is worth your time?

Here are the top 5 things to do when choosing your first language.

1. Define Your Goals

2. Set your constraints

3. Evaluate your options

4. Assess documentation and tutorials

5. Find an online community.
   

Define Your Goals

You could type in Google, "Which programming language should I learn first as a beginner." settle with the answer it gives you, then go about your day. 

This strategy will work if you don't have any projects in mind. But if you are like me, you already have a project in mind.

So instead of googling, ask yourself, what do I want to build?

Set Your Constraints

Now that you have hopefully defined what you want to build, it's time to consider the constraints and parameters associated with your project.

These are the top constraints when working on a software project.

• Projects scope - What am I building.

• Time to develop - How long should this take.

• Cost - How much will it cost to make this and run in production.

For example, if I want to build a website and have it up and running in one month. Well, That's not a ton of time. 

Given that time constraint, I probably wouldn't choose a low-level language that is difficult to learn and has no tools or documentation for building a site.

Defining the scope of a project may not seem important at this stage, especially since we are just trying to find out which language to learn. But I assure you getting in the habit of assessing tech based on the parameters above will pay you huge dividends later in your journey.

Evaluate your options

Now that you know what you are building and the constraints associated with the project. You are in a much better place to evaluate your options.

With a quick Google search, you can see if there are already tools or frameworks dedicated to the thing you are trying to build. These will be most likely be in different languages.

If I was interested in building a website, I might Google "Top Web Development Frameworks."

The results of that search should give a list of frameworks and languages to work with. You can start to dig in and evaluate which one will work best for you.

Assess documentation and tutorials

Go through and read documentation and tutorials on the different languages and frameworks you found in the last step. Are there tutorials in your learning style? Do they make sense to you?

In your journey as a beginner, a sound fundamental understanding of the software you are writing is crucial to your success. Suppose you struggle to learn the fundamentals when going through tutorials and documentation. In that case, that might be a sign that this is not your starting language.

You want to work with a well-documented mature technology that explains things in a way that you understand.

Let's assume you pick a new or not widely adopted language. In that case, there might not be good documentation surrounding it yet, which brings me to my last point.

Find An Online Community

Is there a community talking about the thing you are interested in building?

If so, what language are they using?

This step alone might push you to use one language vs. another. I have found Twitter and Discord to be where many inspiring Developers post and communicate!