Which is best, Java or Python in 2020?

Depends what you want to do. You can use either language for almost anything, but they definitely have different strengths and weaknesses that can help you decide which one is better for what you are doing.

Python is good for:

• Numeric computing and AI
• All kinds of science and academic stuff (including natural language processing)
• Rapid prototyping
• Website backends
• Learning and teaching programming concepts
• all kinds of workflow scripting and other small programs for getting simple jobs done.
• interfacing with C libraries.

Java is good for:

• Creating and distributing applications (on mobile and desktop)
• high-performance network backends.
• creating robust, reliable software at a large scale, especially in teams.
• implementing more foundational software systems like databases (though you might find C++ a better match for that)
• As a starting point to learning the JVM and leveraging it for a number of other interesting languages it hosts like Kotlin, Scala, Clojure and others.

I and a lot of other people enjoy programming in Python more than Java, but Python isn’t the best fit for every job, and that’s especially true for areas where Java is strong. Find out what kind of work interests you and choose based on that.