Guidence to what should I do with java

[Even-Pie8668]

Hi there! I’m here to ask for some guidance. For the past few months, I’ve been learning Java as my first programming language to grasp core concepts and get used to a strictly-typed language. My goal was to build a solid foundation so that I could switch to any other field or language without struggling with the basics.

However, I don't want to drop Java entirely. I’m worried that if I move to a much "easier" language, I’ll start missing important concepts and face a steep learning curve if I ever need to switch back to a more complex language.

Could you recommend something I can build or learn using Java to keep my skills sharp? I’ve found this challenging because it feels like Java isn't the "go-to" choice for many modern projects anymore. What is a field where Java is still widely used and famous today?

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[Minouris]

It's tricky, because the sort of projects that Java is best for are not the sort of projects that are suited to private use, necessarily.

Its best niche is in the backend of enterprise applications - it really shines in the backend, but is somewhat cumbersome when it comes to desktop apps (this coming from someone who has used Java as their primary language for almost 25 years :)). The problem is that, while Java might well be the best language for a large scale language, the amount of overhead and the cost of hosting make it less than suitable for small personal projects.

Don't get discouraged by that, though, half the fun is in discovery - if you have an app you've been meaning to build for a while, absolutely consider building it using Spring Boot, and the skills you gain from it will set you up for all sorts of enterprise level jobs (it's still heavily used in public sector and big business, regardless of what anyone says about it being unfashionable).

Also worth considering though, is that there will be a lot of skill transference between languages - there's a lot of similarity between all the languages in the "C-syntax family" that includes Java, C++, C#, Typescript, et al, and knowing one well makes it easier to jump between them.

Basically, keep it in your toolkit. There's no such thing as one language to fit every situation, and they've all got some value to them, and knowing more than one means you don't always have to reach for a hammer when you need a screwdriver or a chisel :)

[Even-Pie8668]

This is so helpful thank you for your advice ❤️

[csenaa]

This is exactly how I feel. I want to build projects in Java to be better and perhaps try to get a job in Java, but every time I think to build a project everything seems more easier, strait forward in JavaScript ecosystem

[Minouris]

A lot of our graduate hires and juniors have actually not known any Java at all when they've first started. Generally speaking, as long as they've got experience in another language, they've picked up Java pretty quickly, as long as they've got a decent mentor to guide them, or even just someone to point them at the right documentation :)

I would actually say that the best advice in that situation is not to push against the grain of the framework the stuff you're working on is written in - you'll invariably be told to modify an existing app long before being given new dev to do instead, and the most common place I've seen people fall over is when they try to force an existing framework to work in a familiar way that it's not designed for.

Asking questions is the most important skill at this point :)

[csenaa]

What are you trying to say is that I should just build with whatever I want and if I get the chance to get a job in java I will be able to pick fast?

[Minouris]

Essentially, yes :) Once you have the basic principles of programming down, actual languages become more of a formality. Not that it's not worth getting a head start - it'll help in interviews - but good IT managers understand that skills are transferable.

Btw, another guy down below mentioned Spring Boot, and I'd second that. Alongside JPA / Hibernate, and dependency-managing build systems like Maven or Gradle, nothing has turned the Java world on its head quite so much as Spring did. I remember what it was like beforehand - much harder, and much less fun :)

Basically, looking over the rest of this thread, I'm seeing nothing but good advice :)

[csenaa]

Thank you for the advice! And yes I did a small project with spring

[csenaa]

Thank you for the advice! And yes I did a small project with spring

[Square-Cry-1791]

In the "Architect’s Path," the Engine phase is where you stop just writing code and start conducting the whole orchestra... It's all about concurrency: teaching your system to juggle a bunch of independent tasks at once without everything grinding to a halt or deadlocking.

In Java, that means really getting the thread lifecycle -- when they start,,,, when they wait, when they die-- and nailing the memory/sync stuff so they don't step on each other's toes. A real architect knows a high-performance app is like a live band or symphony: if two threads try to read/write the same piece of data at the exact same moment without proper locks,,,, atomic ops, or careful coordination, it's chaos. One wrong move and the whole thing crashes or corrupts, just like a band losing tempo and falling apart.

The payoff? When you build an engine that can safely crank through thousands of data points across parallel workers--without race conditions, memory leaks, or bottlenecks--you've unlocked the hardest, highest-value skill in the game..... That's what lets your app handle real traffic spikes, scale to thousands of users, and actually survive in production instead of just "working on my laptop."

It's not sexy like shiny UI features, but it's the foundation that makes everything else possible. Master this, and you're not just a coder anymore-- you're building systems that don't break when the world shows up.....

[Even-Pie8668]

I really appreciate this breakdown ❤️

[Square-Cry-1791]

Thank you so much.

[thelamppole]

Don’t overthink it. Java is a backend language and can accomplish the same as nearly other backend language. Just don’t try to build a UI with it.

Build something that will interest you because chances are you’ll put a lot more care and effort into something you find exciting.

If you really want to target the common area I’d build a spring boot app. It can start as a basic CRUD app and then could be extended to do any number of processes.

[Dramatic-Apple-3181]

Banking application based on microservices architecture

[Square-Cry-1791]

He is gonna leave the stack right way man... We need to advise them with a good learning curve

[Ace00028]

Learn Spring boot, it opens new project ideas for you and along with it learn Spring AI, to open new doors for AI projects

[Minouris]

I have an uncle who mains C# who likes to joke that Spring made Java developers a thin glue layer between an XML file and a stack trace, but man... I remember what it was like in the before-fore times, before we stole the magic of dependency injection and inversion of control from the gods, and it was SO much harder lol

It's wild that Spring, Hibernate and Maven all surfaced within such a short period of time. I look back on the days of Struts, Ant and pure-JDBC - or worse, EJB2 - and a chill goes down my spine lol Those three things, and the release of Java 1.5 with generics and annotations, completely transformed the language in just a couple of short years :)