Complete hiring guide for Go (Golang) developers

Some say Go is the new Java. Others claim Go is C for the 21st century. Both statements are partially true because Go inherited syntax, static typing, and runtime efficiency from the C family. However, Go was influenced by many more programming languages. It has Python’s readability, Limbo’s concurrency, JavaScript’s usability. The main purpose of its creators was to melt the ease of programming of interpreted, dynamically-typed languages with the efficiency and safety of compiled statically-typed languages. They strived to create a completely new language that takes the best of both worlds and makes programming effective and fun.

Go is first and foremost a cloud software language. It works well for building any server-side programs, such as pub/sub servers and clients, caching mechanisms, integration layers, and any services performing CPU or I/O intensive tasks. It suits for building any type of API using REST, GraphQL, or gRPC. Go also is good for DevOps tasks, such as writing update scripts, server maintenance software, or batch processing.

Go is widely used by companies dealing with cloud computing. Dropbox, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes were written in Go. Google itself uses Go for Google Cloud Platform, YouTube, Google Chrome download server, and a bunch of smaller projects to improve scalability and performance. You’ll find some well-known names, such as Heroku, SoundCloud, BBC, Basecamp, Bitly, among the adopters of this language.

Golang overlaps with and outperforms other languages to some extent. However, it doesn’t mean Go will force out any of them of the market. It rather will carve out some market share and find a niche for itself. The fact is that having realized Go’s superiority in solving scalability and concurrency problems, many companies migrated some of their APIs and microservices from Python, Node, C, or Scala to this language. But they didn’t remove the old languages from their stack completely.

If you consider benchmarks for programming language performance comparison, you’ll see that Go is slower than C/C++, somewhat equal to Java, and faster than any other language. Among the factors that slow Golang down, programmers usually mention imperfections of its garbage collection and memory management. Anyway, real-world apps written in Go are known for their fast speed and high performance, especially those that leverage concurrent programming.

Although Go runs with the speed of low-level languages, it doesn’t really belong to them. The built-in support for garbage collection and memory safety differentiates Go from true low-level languages. Although Go has some low-level features (like pointers), it can’t be used as a system language and is not suitable for kernel development and writing drivers.

At a first glance comparison, both Golang and Python have distinctive features. Golang offers incredible speed of performance with clear, strict formatting and syntax. On the other hand, Python is a more classic and standard language, slower than Golang, even though quite resourceful.

Golang features:

Powerful standard library with a set of library packages for a simpler code composure Simplicity through readability, maintainability, and reliability Web application building through easy constructs and good execution speed Offering channels and Goroutines a simple concurrency managing Compilation speed through parsability and no need for symbol table Testing support in a way that you can quickly test codes and packages you formulate

Python features:

Easy coding through easy functioning learning Object-oriented programming through class concepts Public and free availability through simple clicking and downloading Interpreted high-level language that doesn’t require memorizing the architecture of a system Programming support for GUI (Graphical User Interface). Portable and extensible through easy formulating and compiling of the Python code into C and C++

Golang and Python are not too similar at first glance. Golang is an open-source, statically typed, and compiled programming language, with Google as its creator, and you can expect high-performance, readability, simplicity, and efficiency at all times. Python is a programming language used for building software and websites, conducting data analyses, and automated tasks and used to create various programs as a general-purpose language. The comparison result is that Golang is better than Python if you need more accessible and more straightforward system programming, speed, and support and finding experts working with it, even though Python shines in other segments.

Golang is easy to understand and use, so it is perfect for both novices and experts. Its simplicity goes hand in hand with the functionality, primarily if your foundation is in C or Java. With Golang, working is more practical and straightforward. Golang is easier to maintain than Java, with the same quality performance as C. Whenever you write a code in Golang, that code will adopt a format easily understood by the processor. Also, Golang will improve the services’ reliability and accessibility since it is way faster than other languages.

Another reason why Golang is great to use is that Goroutines need just 2KB memory. All essential functions will continue to run smoothly and fast, independently and with more than just one ongoing process simultaneously. When it comes to handling the development tools, with Golang, they are ready to use and in the form of IDE, plugins, or editors. Any developer would prefer working with the practical tools of Golang, such as GoMetaLinter for quick and easy code analysis or GoDoc for automatic document generating from a code. There is also a simple API for fast testing and a Race detector for preventing specific issues like race condition issues (when multiple threads try to change shared data simultaneously).

Golang is becoming more popular by the day. So far, Python and JS have both been increasing in popularity. Yet, still, even though Golang is relatively new, it was considered the most favorable, simple, and unbelievably easy to learn and use out of many. The numerous benefits of Golang make it a popular language to learn and use in programming. The rise of its fame is mainly due to its simplicity, which is often underrated, especially in tech-context. If something is easy to learn, use and implement, it speeds up the work process and contributes to efficiency. Another contextual and exciting fact about Golang’s popularity is that it uses just 25 keywords, all practical—all versatile. This static programming language has a simple syntax and is memory-managed, which are more reasons why it has become so favored. Golang is easy to pick up and use due to the simple and easy learning curve. Another valid reason for the popularity rise of Golang is that it is an excellent skill to have in a resume and usually goes along with a higher salary value, so there is a financial motivation, along with the personal expertise enhancement.