Choosing the right programming language to learn can shape your entire career.
Some languages feel natural, others feel like you are forcing your brain into a new dimension. And the difference between “easy to learn” versus “challenging to learn” will determine how fast you can build real projects and get results.
Finding out which language is the hardest coding language isn’t about impressing people, it’s about understanding where your effort will give the biggest return. Some languages are more human-friendly, while others demand that you think at the same level as the machine.
In this article, I’ll compare the easiest programming languages to learn in 2025 against the ones that are considered the most complex. You will see why Assembly language and Brainfuck are on one extreme… while Python, Go and PHP land on the other. And I’ll explain which difficult programming languages are actually worth learning, because some of the hardest ones have the highest payoff long-term.
Outline:
- Why even care about the hardest coding language in 2025?
- Which programming language is actually the hardest programming language to learn?
- Is Assembly language still the toughest programming language in the world of programming languages?
- Why Brainfuck is considered the most extreme esoteric programming language ever created
- Is C++ a difficult programming language or just complex programming hype?
- Why Lisp is secretly among the hardest programming languages to learn
- Python is “easy to learn”, but why that matters in choosing a programming language to learn
- Is Rust among the hardest coding languages to learn in 2025 for beginners?
- Is Haskell the most misunderstood functional programming language?
- Why Java can feel like a difficult language in the beginning
- Why JavaScript looks easy but is actually confusing for many beginners
- TypeScript and the rise of modern programming languages
- Why Zig might become one of the hardest programming languages in the future
- Should beginners learn Assembly before high-level languages?
- Why Scala becomes extremely hard when you only know object-oriented programming
- Swift: popular programming language but not one of the hardest programming languages to learn
- SQL is a programming language that is easy to learn
- PHP is not a hard programming language at all
- Prolog and logic programming, one of the hardest coding languages to learn
- COBOL and legacy syntax, why “age” makes a language harder to learn
- Why Erlang makes many programmers quit
- Perl, flexible syntax that becomes a difficult programming language fast
- Different languages are used for different software, why difficulty depends on purpose
- Golang (Go), one of the easiest programming languages to learn
- Final verdict, which one is the hardest programming language to learn in 2025?
- FAQ (8 questions)
1) Why even care about the hardest coding language in 2025?
The tech world is brutal.
Learning a new coding language takes effort to learn. And many languages require a totally new mindset, especially functional programming languages.
When I personally became a programmer, I noticed something very fast: choosing a programming language to learn is not about hype, it’s about how fast you can become useful. A difficult programming language slows down your learning speed, which means slower confidence building, which means slower income.
That’s why “what is the hardest coding language?” matters.
Because the right programming language to learn can save you months.
2) Which programming language is actually the hardest programming language to learn?
There is no single universal ranking, but most experts agree Assembly language and Brainfuck are among the hardest programming languages to learn in the entire world of programming languages.
If you search deeply in programming courses online, they will almost never recommend starting with Assembly, because the programming concepts are too low-level.
Programming languages like C are also quite difficult to learn, because they give you almost zero memory safety by default.
So the hardest programming language to learn is mostly the one that forces you to think like the computer, not like a human.
3) Is Assembly language still the toughest programming language in the world of programming languages?
Yes.
Assembly language is still one of the hardest programming languages to learn today. It’s definitely a confusing turing-complete language with the smallest instruction vocabulary, but with enormous mental overhead.
Learning Assembly language is like learning how the CPU itself breathes.
For most beginners to learn, Assembly language is considered the hardest programming language to learn because there is no abstraction. No objects. No friendly syntax. No modern programming languages comfort.
Just raw instructions.
4) Why Brainfuck is considered the most extreme esoteric programming language ever created
Brainfuck is an esoteric programming language.
It’s not created for productivity, it’s created to stretch the programming mindset.
This programming language was designed to be one of the hardest coding languages to learn because everything looks like symbols, not code.
Just 8 commands.
Yet it’s turing-complete.
That alone makes it the toughest programming language to learn for the wrong reasons.
5) Is C++ a difficult programming language or just complex programming hype?
C++ is not a meme.
It’s genuinely a complex programming language.
Because C++ combines:
– low-level memory control (languages like C)
- object-oriented programming abstraction
- templates
- modern features
It’s not the hardest programming language, but it is hard to learn for beginners.
If you only know Python or JavaScript, C++ feels like a different universe.
6) Why Lisp is secretly among the hardest programming languages to learn
Lisp looks simple, but your programming mindset will hurt.
Lisp forces you to think in a functional programming paradigm.
If you come from procedural or traditional programming… Lisp feels backwards.
Most programmers say Lisp is one of the hardest programming languages not because the syntax is complicated, but because the thinking is complicated.
7) Python is “easy to learn”, but why that matters in choosing a programming language to learn
Python is the most popular programming language in the world right now.
Beginner friendly.
Natural syntax.
Good for natural language processing.
Used in machine learning.
Python is one of the easiest programming languages to learn because it doesn’t overload your brain with memory management.
So when choosing a programming language to learn, Python is the best mental warm-up before you attempt one of the hardest programming languages.
8) Is Rust among the hardest coding languages to learn in 2025 for beginners?
Rust is modern.
Safe.
Fast.
General-purpose programming language.
But Rust is brutally opinionated.
Rust forces you to understand memory ownership, which makes it among the hardest coding languages to learn for beginners.
The Rust compiler alone will teach you new humility.
9) Is Haskell the most misunderstood functional programming language?
Yes, because Haskell is not just a programming language, it’s a worldview.
Pure functional programming.
Zero side effects.
No traditional imperative programming comfort.
Haskell is considered the hardest programming language to learn for many people simply because you cannot “fake” understanding with guesswork.
10) Why Java can feel like a difficult language in the beginning
Java is a popular programming language, but many beginners to learn quickly say: “why does this feel harder than Python?”. The reason is simple: Java requires you to structure your code inside classes from day one. Python does not. Java is also very strict with types, which is great for programming languages for software that need stability, but in the beginning it feels like friction, not clarity.
My personal experience?
Java was my first object-oriented programming language.
I hated it for 3 months.
Then suddenly everything clicked.
Once your brain understands why the compiler enforces structure, Java stops feeling like a difficult programming language and starts feeling like a programming language created for serious work.
11) Why JavaScript looks easy but is actually confusing for many beginners
People often think JavaScript is an easy language to learn because they only see “console.log()” memes on TikTok. But JavaScript is not just a coding language, it’s a full ecosystem + asynchronous event loop + browser APIs + weird type coercion.
JavaScript is not the hardest programming language, but it is one of the most chaotic ones.
That makes it a difficult language for brains that crave structure.
Many common programming errors in JavaScript come not from syntax, but from the fact that the language itself gives enormous freedom, which for a beginner programmer is very dangerous.
12) TypeScript and the rise of modern programming languages
TypeScript is essentially JavaScript + types.
It’s not a new coding language, but it feels like one of the hardest coding languages to learn for beginners because it forces you to think about shape and structure of data.
But TypeScript is exactly what modern programming languages require:
– predictability
– fewer runtime errors
– better team collaboration
This is why many popular languages (Swift, Kotlin, Rust) treat type safety as a first-class citizen.
In a way, TypeScript makes JavaScript feel like a general-purpose programming language, not just browser scripting.
13) Why Zig might become one of the hardest programming languages in the future
Zig is not mainstream yet, but it is rising.
Zig is an intentional alternative to languages like C, but with fewer footguns.
For a beginner who wants to choose a language to learn, Zig will feel like the same category as complex languages like C and C++.
I think Zig is one of the hardest coding languages to learn simply because of its philosophy: maximum control, minimal magic.
If Zig becomes mainstream, new coders will suffer like our grandparents who wrote assembly.
14) Should beginners learn Assembly before high-level languages?
Short answer: no.
Assembly is a hard programming language because it removes abstraction.
That makes it a very tough programming language to learn before any high-level languages.
Learning Assembly language as your first programming language to learn is like teaching someone how quantum physics works, before explaining what gravity is.
Assembly should be step 4… not step 1.
15) Why Scala becomes extremely hard when you only know object-oriented programming
Scala blends object-oriented programming + functional programming.
That duality alone makes Scala a complex programming language.
If you only know languages like Java, the functional programming paradigm in Scala feels alien.
Scala pushes the programming mindset far into abstract territory, pattern matching, monads, type inference, and other paradigms that are challenging to learn.
Scala is one of the hardest programming language to learn if you approach it with traditional programming brain wiring.
16) Swift: popular programming language but not one of the hardest programming languages to learn
Swift (language for Android? No, that’s Kotlin, but many people confuse these) is a surprisingly clean language to learn a new language.
Swift is a general-purpose programming language for Apple platforms, and it feels more like Python than C.
Swift is modern, friendly, and has good guard rails.
I would say Swift is easy to learn compared to complex languages like C or Haskell.
Swift looks sleek, acts predictable, and offers safe abstractions, not brain-surgery like Assembly.
17) SQL is a programming language that is easy to learn
SQL is underrated in difficulty discussions.
SQL is technically a programming language, but not the same type as Python or Java.
SQL is declarative — you describe WHAT you want, not HOW to do it.
SQL is easy to learn because you only need about 15 commands to become useful.
It is not one of the hardest programming languages to learn, in fact it might be one of the easiest programming languages to learn for raw utility.
SQL is the ultimate “quick return on time invested”.
18) PHP is not a hard programming language at all
Simple truth:
PHP is meme’d on, but it’s not hard.
In fact PHP is a perfect language to learn for beginners because:
– low mental barrier
– syntax similar to C but cleaner
– tutorials everywhere
– biggest CMS (WordPress) uses it
PHP is not among the hardest programming languages in any universe, but it is one of the most “useful fast” languages.
| Programming Language | Difficulty Rating (Subjective) | Why It Is / Isn’t Hard |
|---|---|---|
| Assembly Language | Extreme | Programming using raw CPU level instructions |
| Brainfuck | Extreme | Esoteric programming, symbolic instructions only |
| Rust | High | Ownership model + challenging to learn |
| C++ | High | Complex templates + memory control |
| Python | Low | Easy to learn, friendly syntax |
| Java | Medium | Verbose but logical structure |
| PHP | Low | Very easy to start building real projects |
19) Prolog and logic programming, one of the hardest coding languages to learn
Prolog is a functional programming language built around logic, not “steps”.
When I first touched Prolog I felt like my brain was melting.
It is one of the hardest programming languages to learn because you don’t tell the computer how to solve something, you define relationships… and the computer finds the solution.
This feels like reverse programming logic.
It is the definition of “among the hardest programming languages” because traditional programming mindset doesn’t apply here at all.
20) COBOL and legacy syntax, why “age” makes a language harder to learn
COBOL is not a confusing turing-complete language because of complexity, but because of age.
COBOL is large, verbose, and lives inside mainframes.
Most modern programming languages are cleaner and more predictable.
The hardest part of COBOL is not the syntax, it’s that it lives in an ecosystem where documentation and mental models are from the 1960s.
COBOL is a difficult language if you never experienced traditional programming syntax from the old days.
21) Why Erlang makes many programmers quit
Erlang is a functional language, but not like Haskell.
Erlang is built for telecom-grade distributed systems.
Most programmers fail with Erlang because:
– pattern matching
– message passing
– recursion everywhere
Erlang is not one of the easiest programming languages to learn, but if you master it you become elite.
The mental shift required = massive.
22) Perl, flexible syntax that becomes a difficult programming language fast
Perl is powerful.
But Perl lets you write 14 different ways to do the same thing.
That flexibility makes it easy to write unreadable complex programming.
If you want clean strict rails, Perl will punish you.
Perl is one of the hardest coding languages to learn cleanly because the language programming style encourages creative chaos.
23) Different languages are used for different software, why difficulty depends on purpose
Different languages are used in different contexts, this is why difficulty is never universal.
Programming languages like:
– Assembly language → low level
– Python → easy to learn
– C++ → complex languages like C with abstraction
– Rust → memory ownership
– Lisp → paradigm shift
– JavaScript → asynchronous chaos
What makes it the hardest programming language is not always syntax, but the mindset required.
Difficulty is relative to your background.
24) Golang (Go), one of the easiest programming languages to learn
Go is a clean general-purpose programming language with almost no weird syntax.
Golang feels like Python + C had a baby, but with all the garbage removed.
It is one of the easiest programming languages to learn because you can become productive within the first 2 weeks.
It is not a hard programming language, it is a “just get work done” language.
25) Final verdict, which one is the hardest programming language to learn in 2025?
Final answer: Assembly + Brainfuck are the top hardest.
One for the hardware reality.
One for pure esoteric programming philosophy.
But if you want a realistic “hard but useful” hardest programming language to learn in 2025:
Rust.
Rust sits in the perfect middle:
– useful
– future-proof
– extremely challenging to learn
If you want to learn a new language that gives you skill leverage, Rust is the hardest programming language that is actually worth the pain.
If you are interested in reading our blogpost on IT Management Courses as well, feel free to do so!
Bullet point summary (as required)
– hardest coding language “theoretically”: Brainfuck (esoteric programming)
– hardest coding language “practically”: Assembly language
– hardest coding languages to learn that are useful in real world: Rust, C++, Lisp, Haskell
– easiest programming languages to learn: Python, PHP, SQL, Go
– different languages require different mental models
– choosing the right programming language to learn depends on purpose not hype
– languages like C, Rust, C++ make you think like the machine, not like a human
– in 2025: Rust is the most valuable “painful” language to master
Frequently Asked Questions
1) What is the hardest coding language to learn in 2025?
Assembly language, because it forces you to think at CPU level.
2) Is Python actually easy to learn?
Yes, Python is designed to be easy to learn and beginner-friendly.
3) Which hardest programming language should I choose first?
None, start with Python, then move into Rust later.
4) Are esoteric programming languages worth studying?
Only for fun or brain training, not for real jobs.
5) Is JavaScript harder than Python?
Yes, JavaScript has more complexity and asynchronous behavior.
6) Which language should beginners avoid first?
Assembly language, too low-level, hard to learn as a starter.
7) Is Rust really that difficult?
Yes, Rust’s ownership system is brutally unforgiving.
8) What’s the fastest way to choose a language to learn?
Define your goal, then choose a programming language that fits that purpose.
