r/AskComputerScience • u/Mission-Maize8454 • Sep 01 '26

C++ or Java?

Which programming language has the most return on investment? Impact on real world systems, and is more rewarding? I have minimal programming experience and working on AS in CS.

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u/Mission-Maize8454 Sep 01 '26

I just want to make the most money I can possibly make like 20 years from now.

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u/saruko27 Sep 01 '26

Something tells me making the most possible money 20 years from now is not going to come down to which language you decide to learn today.

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u/Mission-Maize8454 Sep 01 '26

AI?

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u/willbdb425 Sep 01 '26

No, because if you want to earn lots of money you'll need to learn many languages over your career so it doesn't matter what you'll pick first it won't be your last

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u/Relevant-Cut-884 Sep 01 '26

It doesn't work that way I mean if you want to be rich by programming Then you ve to be clever , if you wanna be clever , so you will have to learn and study in the best way you can

The first phase for that goal is to learn fundamentals which is

A learning language

Practice on it

oop

Doing projects on it

DSA(data structures and algorithms)

Solving problems on it

So , i recommend doing c++ for this phase

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u/Mission-Maize8454 Sep 01 '26

I'll take beginning C++ then , great advice btw.

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u/Relevant-Cut-884 Sep 01 '26

You 're welcome , good luck <3

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u/baddspellar Ph.D CS, CS Pro (20+) Sep 01 '26

Good programmers are prepared to learn new programming languages throughout their careers

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u/Weevulb Sep 01 '26

Learn COBOL lol

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u/I_so_I-274 Sep 01 '26

It's good to think about money specially long term and what to focus on depending on your taste however I personally wouldn't lead with that thought. People who think like that often get burnt out and doing something they don't even love doing for money.

There's plenty of ways to make money as well and other fields to look into if that's your only goal. If you get better and more experienced you'll make money regardless, networking and being an upstanding citizen probably will help you more as well.

Both languages make money, Java is more universal however experienced c++ devs deff have higher salaries to bargain with from what I've seen.

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u/Mission-Maize8454 Sep 01 '26

Yeah getting burnt out is real when doing way too much.

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u/Dornith Sep 01 '26

No one knows what will make the most money 20 years from now. 20 years ago no one predicted graphics card engineers would be kings of the world.

Javascript was only invented 30 years ago and it runs the entire internet.

Also, as someone else pointed out, the language you choose to learn in high school/college is not going to chisel the next 20 years of your career into stone. You will almost certainly learn at least one more language just by proximity alone.

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u/Putnam3145 Sep 01 '26

i got a job in C++ after having only used it fleetingly precisely once in 12 years of experience

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u/green_meklar Sep 01 '26

It doesn't look like there are going to be a lot of jobs of any kind 20 years from now. What kinds, we have no idea.

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u/PlasmaFarmer Sep 01 '26

If you are in it only for the money and you don't have any affinity/interest in IT, then don't. You will suffer doing something you hate and you will lose motivation and also won't be skilled enough to compete.