To program in C++ on Unreal Engine, you need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The default IDE used by Unreal Engine on Windows is Visual Studio.
Another IDE option is Visual Studio Code which is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. There is also Xcode which is widely used on Mac.
An IDE has a compiler that is used to convert C++ text code into a program.
For development in Unreal Engine, you can use the Community version of Visual Studio. The latest version available in July 2020 is Visual Studio 2019, which can be downloaded from the link:
When installing Visual Studio 2019, a screen will appear for you to choose which components should be installed. Scroll down the screen until you find the Game Development with C++ option. Check this option as shown in the image below:
Let's explore Visual Studio a bit when we create our first C++ project in Unreal Engine. After that, the articles will focus on C++ code and you will be able to follow regardless of the IDE you are using.