Top 10 Skills to learn in Software Development for 2020

Today’s fast paced world leaves no room for stagnation in one’s skills. Education does not end after school, college, or university. Especially in a field that is as quickly evolving and maturing as software development, developers must be constantly updating themselves with the use of the latest tools and frameworks in usage. For 2020, these are the emerging skills in the Industry of software development in India that are essential to learn to be a competitive performer in the market in the New Year.

1. Using Containers

Remember the days of having to hunt down mysterious .dlls because your program won’t start? Or something breaking because there is Python 3 on a system instead of the 2.7 you coded it on? By learning how to leverage the power of containers, this can be a thing of the past. With containers, you can package a program and all its dependencies in one file, enabling you to deploy it quickly in one shot without worrying about compiling.

2. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has reduced the difficulty of scaling applications to larger and larger heights. With the use of server based computing, simple scalability, and parallel computation, cloud computing is only going to scale new heights of popularity. Leverage this skill early, as it’s prevalence is only going to increase with developments in the fields of ML, AR, and AI.

3. Data Structures and Algorithms

It might be one of the most cliché topics out there, but data structures and algorithms are the backbone of any developers skill set. Without a solid understanding of the principles behind data structures and how they operate, it is impossible to make programs that need to manipulate and store data…which is all of them.

4. Version Control

The storing, versioning, and committing of code has ceased to be a manual process since the turn of the decade, and if you are a developer who is worth their salt then it is imperative to know how to use tools for version control. This will sharpen your skills, and in the long run make it much less of a headache to find, archive, store and backup source code.

5. A scripting language

You might think your knowledge of another programming language makes up for it, but a scripting language can be an enormous help while performing tasks that are repetitive and monotonous. A scripting language like python can nicely complement your other programming skills and make the surrounding parts of your job much easier.

6. Networking basics

Knowing LAN, WAN, and Dan from networking isn’t enough anymore. With the increased emphasis on smart objects, internet of things connectivity, and cloud storage, it is increasingly unlikely that any software development in India happens without some aspect of connectedness. In such an environment, networking skills can be a huge boon while troubleshooting and coding new features.

7. UNIX
As the OS wars draw to a close, and we see the browser emerge victorious, the server environment becomes a lot more important. UNIX, as the code responsible for the running of the server itself, becomes a lot more important. Familiarity and ease with UNIX, including the command line, graphical environment, and apt will make a developer a lot more marketable.

8. Machine Learning

With ML being adopted by large tech companies, and new and innovative tools releasing day by day, it has never been easier to get into ML. By utilizing the power of this superb new technology, tasks that were previously either impossible or would have taken too long are now easy to do. This makes ML a crucial skill for the future, with usage only going to increase.

9. Block chain

This decentralized global ledger has been hailed as a panacea to a whole bunch of issues, but the truth is that it does indeed speed up the exchange of transactions in a safe, fast, and secure manner. This makes them the ideal tool for top level business processes, and the coder who can wrangle them indispensable.

10. Voice Computing

With Every major OS having some sort of voice recognition and input platform up and running, there are major new applications of this revolutionary tech. From using it successfully in smaller devices where it is the sole input method, to using it as a complement to a multimedia solution, Voice recognition is a fast exploding field

These are our predictions for the skills that are projected to be the most in demand in the coming year. What do you think? Use this list to arm yourself, and make sure you are adequately prepared to position yourself in the Job market, and take advantage of your skill set. Happy hunting!