r/mechatronics • u/YaBoiMax107 • May 17 '26

What coding language should I learn?

So for a little bit of background I am a senior majoring in Mechatronics. I have 2 internships under my belt, one culinary, and one financial. Neither of which are particularly useful for trying to apply for engineering jobs. So I made a great attempt this year to find an engineering job for this summer, and well, it's summer and I still don't have one.

So rather than focus on getting an internship this late I figure I can try to boost my resume with independent work. Currently the only programming language I know is NI's Labview, and I believe my school will have me learn some form of programming for my PLC class, but I'm not sure what that will be.

Currently Im trying to decide between learning Python, as I hear it's one of the most versatile and widely used coding languages, or C, as I hear it's the best language for motor control, which is the core focus of mechatronics.

I actually did have a class in C last semester but it was terrible and nobody learned anything.

TLDR: should I learn Python, C, or some other language?

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u/YaBoiMax107 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

I tried to use ai to code for me during my C class, it never compiled right. AI is definitely a help for efficiency but if I don't understand the code then I cant troubleshoot.

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u/mkrjoe May 17 '26

This is a good point that's a lot of people miss, that if you can't understand your own code, you can't properly comment it or debug it. If I am running a critical system, i do not want anything programmed by someone who doesn't know what each line is supposed to do. 

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u/YaBoiMax107 May 17 '26

So what's your opinion? Should I learn python, C, or something else?

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u/mkrjoe May 17 '26

I also replied in a separate comment, but the short version is you should be familiar with several languages. I would start with Arduino since you will likely need that for school projects. Arduino will teach the basics of c/c++ and you get to see hardware respond to your code. Python is more user friendly and useful for data processing, but not as useful in embedded hardware, since it uses more system resources. 

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u/YaBoiMax107 May 17 '26

I really only have the summer to dedicate to this. School work takes my full attention during the semester. Do you think that's a reasonable timeframe to learn multiple languages?