There are applications today where C++ is still the best choice. For high complexity, performance critical applications (as csmuk mentions - game engines, tradi

There are applications today where C++ is still the best choice. For high complexity, performance critical applications (as csmuk mentions - game engines, trading, network software, but also high performance compilers and VMs) no other language has quite the mix of performance, available abstractions, and maturity. The question is then, if these you're into writing these types of applications. If you're not, then IMO, C++ is not worth learning. In the words of Alan Perlis: "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" The main contributions of C++ is implementing abstractions well known in other languages - OO, generic programming - in a C-like syntax. C++ is not the best language to learn to understand these concepts - there is too much low level complexity to deal with. But if you're looking for language with the performance of C and with available high level abstractions, C++ is still the best choice today.