5 hard skills every professional programmer should have

Let's talk about hard skills to become a good programmer. As you know, demands for programmers are quite high. Skilled programmers are some of the most well-paid technology professionals. But let's not forget, computer programming is a highly competitive industry. Your sound skills can only give you an edge over the competition. Whether you are freshers or a professional with years of coding experience, you need to constantly improve your skill set.



Computer programmers requires to perform many responsibilities. And that the reason why they need to have wide range of skills to stay ahead of competition.

I'm gonna discuss 5 hard skills that are needed for working in computer programming.

1. Programming language

A programmer doesn't require to learn all programming languages. You just need to know one or two programming languages in depth. Before mastering on certain languages, try to figure out the field you want to work in and accordingly you can choose languages that are in your interest. If you focus on few languages, you can become fluent in those languages. And facing and cracking interview would be easy for you. Look, no company like to teach new hires, so it's important to acquire proficiency in you main language.

2. Data structures and algorithms

Every programmer should learn data structures and algorithms.  If you are good at data structures and algorithms, you have a great chances of getting hired in big companies.

Algorithms are nothing but the sets of instructions to solve a problem. Data structures hold data while algorithms solve the problem using that data. There are many issues like sorting, search, code optimization etc. where your knowledge of algorithms is widely used.

Data structure and algorithms are used in building a program more efficiently. With the knowledge of Data structure and algorithms, you could solve problems in a more optimized way.

So. it should be crucial for every programmer to master these skills

3. Databases

It's imperative for programmer to know how to interact with database. Yes, it is unavoidable. A business simply cannot operate without data. So, a large part of programming deals with data that are stored in database.

Many jobs would also require you to have some database experience. Without database knowledge, those jobs will be eliminated from your list of potential opportunities.

Even if you are a freshers, you should have a basic knowledge like how to create, delete, update, insert a record. Knowledge of database security is also important for programmers.

4. Version Control system

To be an effective programmer, you should know how to use a Version Control system. It helps track and manage the changes done in your programs. If you make any mistake in your project, you can easily roll back to a previous version of the code using Version Control. Without version control, you would go back to the original version of the code to fix bugs and that would be time consuming and frustrating too. Working on a project without using version control is too risky. It's like not having backups.

5. Testing

Every programmer should have some testing knowledge. This helps to check if the code works fine. Programmers are often require to perform unit testing at minimum. By creating unit tests, he can make sure that the code works in different situations. Most companies hire testers but before passing code for testing, it's important to test code at programmer's end.