K programming language
Shares rank 133 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
A terse array language that people recommend for its simple, compact notation in REPL experiments and quick ideas. Critics call it esoteric and hard to read, with some saying solutions are hard for others to follow.
A terse array language that people recommend for its simple, compact notation in REPL experiments and quick ideas. Critics call it esoteric and hard to read, with some saying solutions are hard for others to follow.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Simple, concise notation
“refreshingly simple and effective once you manage to overcome indoctrination you received since elementary school”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” “K is an equally excellent notation for experimenting in a REPL or discussing ideas on a whiteboard.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Array-programming the Mandelbrot set”
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
8 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Same with K and Uiua and Matlab.”
“Nice, simplistic, loads quickly, no ads, great letter.”
“refreshingly simple and effective once you manage to overcome indoctrination you received since elementary school”
“a need to plug the semantic gap left by K and Q”
“a model-agnostic, agent-agnostic, local-first, and task-driven ADE that lets you just work”
“written in an esoteric language which seems to be more overloaded than Perl”
“Great for showing off, no-one else can read your solution”
“K is an equally excellent notation for experimenting in a REPL or discussing ideas on a whiteboard.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.