Assembly or direct machine code. Everything has to eventually be converted into something the processor understands. Either that or any code run with root.<p>A little less flippantly: what you mean by &quot;powerful&quot; really does make a difference. Specialist languages, like R or Erlang, are more expressive in their fields. While other generalist languages like C&#x2F;C++, Java, or Python cover a broad spectrum of use cases. It really depends on what you&#x27;re doing, and what you&#x27;re comfortable programming in. Usually learning one of each of the basic forms of languages will give you a good understanding of what will fit with what you want to accomplish. The language is just a tool. Don&#x27;t get stuck thinking that a sledgehammer is better than a pair of needlenose pliers.