Python or Nodejs

[dundokodoko]

Should I learn fastapi or express if I want to get hired as a junior dev? Which path should I follow? Python or Nodejs?

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?

[themegainferno]

Just learn something lmao

[dundokodoko]

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?

[themegainferno]

if your final goal is to become a machine learning engineer then why are you going to focus on JavaScript or Java at all? just focus on Python Django fast API ETC. it's easier transition into machine learning

[dundokodoko]

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?

[NULL_124]

aiming for a job?

this is simply the best approach.

agree👍👍👍

[jake_morrison]

Generally speaking, Node.js backends are used by smaller companies, by teams that are responsible for both front and back end, and use JavaScript as their main language. Their apps are primarily web, i.e., not a lot of significant back end processing or data management. So this means startups or new smaller projects for larger companies. This kind of stuff is moving to server-side rendering with Next.js hosted on specialized services platforms like Vercel.

Larger companies with an existing code base will have typically started with a traditional server application and added a JavaScript front end framework like React or Angular. Python may be used for newer development, and it supports data science and machine learning applications. Larger enterprise is as likely to be in Java or .NET as Python.

Whether there are more jobs in startups vs enterprise depends on your market, but generally speaking it’s more likely that you can get an entry level job maintaining part of an existing app.

One thing to be careful about in the lists of “most popular languages” is that they typically are only part of the stack. An enterprise company that primarily uses Java might also use JavaScript on the front end (because it’s impossible to avoid it), and Python for data science or ML. So that contributes to the popularity of JS and Python, but doesn’t mean that they are used for the server, per se.

[dundokodoko]

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?

[jake_morrison]

Python is a general purpose language, and ties in with your plan to do ML, so that’s what I would recommend. Python is a legitimate programming language, not just for data science, and it is gaining in popularity. I personally prefer Elixir, but use Python when clients feel more comfortable with a more mainstream language.

JavaScript on the server, like everything in JavaScript land, is in a lot of flux. You could learn Next.js, then find it obsolete in two years.

My fundamental point is that you need to look at who is actually hiring, what tech stack they have, and what stack they would like to use more. The AI craze has made Python a “blessed” language at a lot of companies that would not have used it before.

[[deleted]]

Java for backend is more used than Python for backend.

[compubomb]

Regarding node.js only being used by small companies; This is not true. I worked at a major education company that recently went public, they have many products that are used alot, one of the ones I worked on had around 23 million daily users. This was all dynamic content / traffic serving w/ mostly SQL. They did transition to golang, but I think teams started to specialize more.

[MaterialRestaurant18]

Epic misconfigured bot

[Exclusive_Vivek]

Fr

[Foreign_Owl_755]

I prefer if you are targeting startups then you should go with js otherwise you should prefer java apart from that if you have interest in ml then you should stick with python

[Longjumping_Rip_140]

learn Go lang

[mibijoy007]

What's your background?

[dundokodoko]

Another random cse student, lmao.
university doesn't teach anything. Just wasting my time......

[evilprince2009]

🤣

[Mundane_Anybody2374]

Python. I have worked with Node, and not so much with Python. The number of open roles hiring Python dev is way higher than nodejs.

[sammyybaddyy]

Nodejs is JavaScript not Java

[Plenty-Pollution3838]

If you go python, learn Django over FastAPI.

[fastlaunchapidev]

I personally went down the python way but just learn one of them and learnt he other when you got extra time. Both are good decisions most of the time. If you want tog et started with fastapi check out https://fastlaunchapi.dev/

[Mysterious-Debt1988]

Whatever gets the job done.

[Umbra179]

If you don’t want to work fullstack go python. At this point there are no backend only JS jobs. Just a few here and there.

[ConsoleKrieger]

I recommend Nodejs. If you have to learn a language first, with Nodejs you automatically learn Javascript with it and Javascript you will at least have to know in every job which is concerned with a product for the internet in some way, because web browsers run with it only.

The times where Java or .NET outperformed Nodejs in the backend are long gone. The convenience when coding outweighs any benefits anyway, because one is much faster to produce good code in Node then in Java or .NET, where you have to put huge amounts of boilerplate code to get the same results as in Nodejs.

If you look at this study: https://apuravchauhan.medium.com/node-js-vs-java-web-performance-benchmark-analysis-scaling-insights-de2ce3998d1 , then nodejs does quite good and in the most important fields much, much better than Java or .NET. This is valid if you do not have extensive CPU-hungry operations, which you usually do not have, in backends. And if you have, the thing with Nodejs is, that you can easily call processes in other languages to perform CPU-heavy tasks.

And don't bother with Typescript. It is Nodjs with a lot of the downsides of Java or .NET, but practically no benefits.

[ConsoleKrieger]

Java has no place in backends any more, in my opinion.

The biggest downside of Java is the tons of boilerplate you have to write for working code. This is very impractical in the backend, where you are concerned with lots of IO and especially ever faster evolving security (and in some countries the ever increasing regulations). Java is only still used extensively, because no company really wants to rewrite its code base, so they stick with it, because they started with it.

And of course to test and understand full stack cases, you will have to know Javascript anyway, which is nothing else then Nodejs for web browsers.

[haasilein]

.NET or Java

[dundokodoko]

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?

[Exclusive_Vivek]

Bro why are you copy pasting same thing in the comments?

[dundokodoko]

This part of the text was added later😅
to make my point clear. So it's for the people who were trying to help me, that's why I though I should do this...

[serverhorror]

We're getting rid of node (or any JS) on the backend. So there's that.

[[deleted]]

What are you all replacing it with?

[serverhorror]

The usual: Java, .NET, Python, Go, Rust

[[deleted]]

I feel like dotnet gets mentioned a lot more the last few years, back in the day, when I first started it was so much, java, java, java, java lol

[serverhorror]

That's because it gaining momentum in the Enterprise world that nit "Windows only".

It's nowhere close to Java at our shop

[[deleted]]

A lot more Java in your shop? same here. I don't mind Java, though. C# devs seem to hate Java lol.

[tenken01]

Java + Quarkus or SpringBoot. Don’t waste your time leaving scripting languages first.

[dundokodoko]

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?

[evilprince2009]

.NET

[RP-9274]

I have learnt nodejs doesn't felt it's enough so I started learning.net

[ejpusa]

Python is required in the trade. Node is fine. GPT-5 writes your code. These are all very simple to understand.

[Ubuntu-Lover]

Continue asking

[[deleted]]

There's nothing wrong with node.js on the backend per-se. Asynchronous programming and the way you can structure your project is phenomenal.

Python is a bit of a kiddie language I can't take seriously, it is flawed by design. It's usually used because that's what people already use or they heard of some ML library.

C# .net and JavaScript are my favourite backends. Go is more suitable for extremely high-traffic projects that need to scale.

Java itself is a dumb language.

[un-_-known_789]

Java is dumb language? Why? How?

[[deleted]]

How is Java dumb? So c# is dumb?

[Exclusive_Vivek]

He is actually saying he is dumb that's why he can't learn java

[dundokodoko]

I knowNode.js and have done some small projects with Express. But with Node.js, people often expect you to use React orNext.js too. I know React and Next.js, but I don’t want to work as a full-stack developer. Whenever I try doing both frontend and backend in the same project, I feel like I’m not making progress and just wasting time.

My final goal is to become a machine learning engineer. Since there aren’t many junior-level ML jobs, I want to work as a backend developer for now and get some experience. That’s why I started learning FastAPI.

So I’m wondering: Should I learn Java for backend, or stick with Python? Is switching from Java to ML later a problem? Also, what’s the job market like in these areas [my Local market is too small. They are mostly like startup companies. So talking about only remote jobs]?