C/C++
Shares rank 82 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
Recommended for low-level and systems work, memory layouts, game development, and wide availability on nearly any platform. The most common caveat is that memory bugs and undefined behavior make correct code hard to write.
Recommended for low-level and systems work, memory layouts, game development, and wide availability on nearly any platform. The most common caveat is that memory bugs and undefined behavior make correct code hard to write.
37 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 23
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Available everywhere, low friction
“I personally detest the babel of languages involved in "modern ways of programming" and have settled on C/C++ for everything since they are available everywhere.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Learn Programming with OCaml” “I use C/C++ because it seems to be the least friction option to me overall”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “Neither GCC nor Clang are compliant with standard C++” Stricter patterns with performance benefits
“If I want stricter coding pattern with performance benefits I will use C/C++ for the job instead.”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “TypeScript 7” “If you're using Rust (or Mojo or C/C++), you'll have to try hard to make software slow.”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “There's no reason for software to be slow anymore” Preferred for serious low-level work
“for serious stuff C/C++ is still the preferred way”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Libgodc: Write Go Programs for Sega Dreamcast” “code in something that touches metal (c,c++)”
Comment from 19 Aug 2026 in “The Mojo language (by Modular, now Qualcomm) is now open-source”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Memory bugs and undefined behavior
“languages like C or C++ just say well, if you accidentally destroy the illusion your program might do absolutely anything at all”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “CVE-2026-3888: Important Snap Flaw Enables Local Privilege Escalation to Root” “It's also difficult to yourself that you were never in command of a language as far as UB/other footguns go”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Everything in C is undefined behavior” “It is much harder to write quality stuff in c/c++ that doesn't have memory bugs”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Bun ported to Rust in 6 days” - Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “DuckDB Ducklake”
- Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Gemini 4 Argon”
Security risks and deadlocks
“how hard doing this stuff is in C/C++ without creating a lot of dead locks, crash bugs, and security issues”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Aesthetics of single threading” “please don't create unnecessary security risk by writing it in unsafe languages such as C/C++”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?” Awful syntax and verbose types
“that set of languages have objectively AWFUL syntax”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Topcoat is pushing the boundary of server applications with Rust” “Writing type explicitly everywhere is just bad UX.”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “How Do We Stop Vibe Coding?”
Other programming languages people recommend
The four most recommended other programming languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 163 programming languages, rankedWhat people said
37 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“C/C++ is way more ergonomic for dealing with memory layouts”
“the latter continue to remain fraught with memory-safety footguns”
“certain categories of bugs are basically unavoidable in C/C++”
“that set of languages have objectively AWFUL syntax”
“I personally detest the babel of languages involved in "modern ways of programming" and have settled on C/C++ for everything since they are available everywhere.”
“make sure you have documented hours with C/C++, Verilog on Zynq”
“If you're using Rust (or Mojo or C/C++), you'll have to try hard to make software slow.”
“code in something that touches metal (c,c++)”
“Writing type explicitly everywhere is just bad UX.”
“I use C/C++ because it seems to be the least friction option to me overall”
“Not to mention C/C++ with NCurses.”
“C/C++ with static code analysis is not worse than Rust.”
“C/C++ does not care and they're currently the language for foundational work”
“C/C++ have utterly broken generations of programmers”
“If I want stricter coding pattern with performance benefits I will use C/C++ for the job instead.”
“It's also difficult to yourself that you were never in command of a language as far as UB/other footguns go”
“Bootstrapping a modern/ up-to-date C/C++ compiler works”
“It is much harder to write quality stuff in c/c++ that doesn't have memory bugs”
“Rust is an absolute improvement over C/C++ in major ways.”
“which has ensured its replacement by the free C/C++”
“languages like C or C++ just say well, if you accidentally destroy the illusion your program might do absolutely anything at all”
“I imagine C/C++ will be horrible for AI for obvious reasons”
“Segfaults give you hardly anything to work with”
“how hard doing this stuff is in C/C++ without creating a lot of dead locks, crash bugs, and security issues”
“In C/C++ most devs don't even know what restrict is or how to write code using it correctly”
“made it quite easy to use C++ for game development on PCs”
“building/packaging being a mess”
“C/C++ has one of the worst-designed syntaxes”
“for serious stuff C/C++ is still the preferred way”
“untangling the mess that is building C/C++ stuff is a fool's errand”
“please don't create unnecessary security risk by writing it in unsafe languages such as C/C++”
“heretofore C/C++ haven't done very well”
“C/C++ dependency management is a nightmare too.”
“due to its lack of memory safety guarantees”
“I know that C/C++ would've taken me much longer to figure out”
“TinyGo is soooooooo much better than working with C/C++ or Rust as an example”
“C/C++ is a dead end: the community has thoroughly rejected technical solutions like the Circle compiler”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.