Which of the following is not a third generation language?

Answer Details

Programming languages are classified into generations based on how close they are to the hardware and how much they resemble human language. Third generation languages are high-level languages that use English-like statements and are largely independent of any particular machine. FORTRAN, COBOL, and Basic all fit this description, being designed for scientific, business, and general-purpose programming respectively using readable syntax.

Assembly language belongs to the second generation. It uses mnemonic codes such as ADD or MOV that map closely to a specific processor's machine instructions, which means a program written in assembly language for one type of processor generally will not run on another. This close tie to hardware, rather than English-like structure, places it a generation below FORTRAN, COBOL, and Basic.

When classifying a language by generation, check whether it is written in processor-specific mnemonics (second generation) or in portable, English-like statements (third generation).