# BQN

11 Hacker News commenters recommended BQN and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a well-documented, APL-style array language with a high-performance implementation. Caveat: it is new and its notation is unlike standard math notation.

## Why people recommend it

- Well documented, better than K derivatives (2 comments): "Much better documented than K derivatives." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48242455)) "BQN documentation has a great read on why" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48245814))
- Well-built, high-performance implementation (2 comments): "BQN is a new take on APL w/ high performance implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48245594)) "BQN & CBQN are absolutely wonderful pieces of code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48823779))
- Good fit for array programming (2 comments): "BQN or its ancestor APL are good for this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46109872)) "then BQN will probably suit your tastes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48243965))

## What people warn about

- Notation too dissimilar to blackboard math (1 comments): "Too dissimilar to the blackboard although I really do like them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50063657))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [J programming language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/j-programming-language.md): 23 recommend
- [Uiua](https://hackerapproved.com/p/uiua.md): 20 recommend
- [K programming language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/k-programming-language.md): 11 recommend
- [kdb+ q](https://hackerapproved.com/p/q.md): 7 recommend
- [l runtime for k and q](https://hackerapproved.com/p/l.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "BQN", https://hackerapproved.com/p/bqn/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).