With blueprints, you don’t need to write a single line of code and performance difference vs writing C++ your own is negligible if you don’t do heavy calculations per frame, which you want to avoid anyways.
It’s still a scripting language and will start teaching you how to think about problems just like writing code, so it’s perfect for your first game, which you should not be over ambitious about (don’t worry it’s not gonna be a waste either).
If you’re dead set on writing code, start with Unity. C# has much better hot reload (write code, save, then unity project will auto update and work), has much less chance of a fatal crash where you’ll need to waste time relaunching the engine, has better autocomplete performance, less specific syntax etc.
Edit: Rarely mentioned, but it’s almost paramount that you know some forms of version control. Worth it just as your own “undo” button if anything goes wrong. My fav is still Unity + git. If you’re on Unreal, go for perforce and it’ll look good on resumes.