What is Go?

Learn that Go is a simple and fast language born at Google.

What is Go?

Go (or Golang) is a compiled, statically typed programming language introduced at Google in 2009. Its designers are Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson.

Go is a compiled language: you turn your source code into a single executable with go build. That file runs directly on the operating system; no separate interpreter is needed.

Go is widely used for cloud services, command-line tools, DevOps tools (Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker) and network programming. Its clean syntax and powerful concurrency model stand out.

What makes Go stand out

Go's most distinctive features are:

Clean syntax: few keywords, easy to learn
Fast compilation: large projects build in seconds
Single binary: runs without dependencies
Goroutines: lightweight threads for concurrency
Standard library: strong baseline including net, JSON, HTTP

These traits make Go popular for production servers.

Exercise First Go output

Add a fmt.Println line inside the empty main. The output must be Hello Go.

Show example solution

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Hello Go")
}

Test yourself

Where was Go born?
- At Apple
- At Microsoft
- At Google
- At Amazon
Show answer

At Google — Go was designed at Google and introduced in 2009.

Go source file

Go source code is usually written in a file with the ____ extension.

Show answer

Go source code is usually written in a file with the .go extension.

Match the concepts

Go

Programming language
Golang

Another name for Go
go build

Compile command
.go

Source file extension

Next lesson: Installing Go

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