5 Most Difficult Programming Languages of the World

You might have written your first code in programming languages such as C/C++ or Java and might have faced difficulty learning these languages. Well, these languages are at least readable or understandable but what if we say to write a program printing ‘Hello World!‘ using spaces, tabs, and linefeeds only. We are not joking and actually there are some programming languages in the world where you need to write your code using some commands or syntax which is neither readable nor understandable. They are also considered as the most difficult programming languages in the world and maybe you will get to know about these languages for the first time so let’s discuss these languages one by one.

1. Brainfuck

As the name suggests, this language is really complicated and coding in this language is really difficult. It was created in 1993 by Urban Muller and the main purpose to create this language was to write minimal lines of code. This language operates in an array of memory cells and there are only 8 commands defined in this language to write any program.


Example: Hello World! Program

++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-]>++.>+.+++++++..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.------.--------.>+.>.

Check the output of this code from here.

2. Cow

We know that the name of this language sounds a funny name for you but it is actually a programming language and it was created by Sean Heber in 2003. This language consists of 12 instructions and the funniest thing about this language is the keyword ‘moo’ (sound of a cow) or it’s variations used in this language. Writing any other character or word considered as a comment in this language. It was based on the language used in Turing Machine.
Example: Hello World! Program

MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo Moo MoO MoO MoO Moo OOO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOoMOo MOo MOo MOo MOo Moo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo Moo MoO MoO MoO Moo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo Moo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MooOOO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo

Check the output of this code from here.

3. Intercal

This language was created in 1972 by Don Woods and James M. Lyon and they both were students at Princeton University. This language doesn’t have any pronounceable acronym. Creators of this programming language included keywords like Read out, Ignore, Please, Forget, and likewise to make this language user-friendly. The funny thing about this language is that it expects 4 Please keyword in code to check programmers politeness. If it will be less the code won’t execute because it will consider the programmer is insufficiently polite. If it will be 5 or more than 5 then also it won’t execute because it will consider the programmer is overly polite.
Example: Hello World! Program

DO ,1 <- #13
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #1 <- #238
DO ,1 SUB #2 <- #108
DO ,1 SUB #3 <- #112
DO ,1 SUB #4 <- #0
DO ,1 SUB #5 <- #64
DO ,1 SUB #6 <- #194
DO ,1 SUB #7 <- #48
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #8 <- #22
DO ,1 SUB #9 <- #248
DO ,1 SUB #10 <- #168
DO ,1 SUB #11 <- #24
DO ,1 SUB #12 <- #16
DO ,1 SUB #13 <- #162
PLEASE READ OUT ,1
PLEASE GIVE UP

Check the output of this code from here.

4. Malbolge

This language was introduced by Ben Olmstead in 1998 and the amazing fact is that it took almost two years to write the first program so you can imagine the complexity of this language. Coding in this language looks like garbage or malfunction and it is said to be that Ben Olmstead has never written a single program in this language. Malbolge is a public domain esoteric programming language and considered as one of the hardest programming languages in the world.
Example: Hello World! Program

('&%:9]!~}|z2Vxwv-,POqponl$Hjihf|B@@>,=<M:9&7Y#VV2TSn.Oe*c;(I&%$#"mCBA?zxxv*Pb8`qo42mZF.{Iy*@dD'<;_?!\}}|z2VxSSQ

Check the output of this code from here.

5. Whitespace

This language was introduced by Edwin Brady and Chris Morris on 1st April 2003 (April fools day). The day it was introduced people thought it was a joke but it wasn’t actually. You are allowed to use only spaces, tabs, and linefeeds to write your code in this language. Any other character will be ignored by the interpreter.
Example: Hello World! Program. Don’t confuse as the source code only contains the whitespace and tabs. Check the output of this code from here.
Other Difficult Programming Languages:

• Chef
• Shakespeare
• ArnoldC