Thoughts on the 2016 Stack Overflow Developer Survey

Sean Raven
12 April 2016

Today I stumbled across the article The Difference Between C# to F# Is a Scale of $20K, and followed the link to the Stack Overflow 2016 Developers Survey. Here are some things I found interesting there.

  • JavaScript is consitently the most popular technology in all categories.
  • The most popular back-end (server-side) technologies are JavaScript, SQL, and Java. Java comfortably beat PHP and C# in that category.
  • The top Mobile technologies are Android, Java, and iOS, with Objective-C still more popular than Swift.
  • Python topped the Math & Data category.
  • Java is the most popular among students.
  • Overall, the most popular technologies are JavaScript, SQL, and Java.
  • Rust is the most loved language, with Swift, F#, Scala, and Go making the top 5.
  • The most dreaded technologies include Visual Basic, LAMP, and Objective-C.
  • The top 5 technologies that people want to learn are Android, Node.js, AngularJS, Python, and JavaScript.
  • The top 5 technologies on Stack Overflow are JavaScript, Java, Android, Python, and C# (with PHP not-too-close behind).
  • The most trending tech is React, followed by Spark.
  • The most-paid jobs in the US go to Spark and Scala, followed by F#, Cassandra, and Hadoop.
  • The top-paying full-stack technology is Cloud, React, and Redis.
  • The top-paying front-end (client/browser-side) technology is React, followed by Node.js, followed by Angular, LAMP, and MongoDB.
  • The top-paying mathematics technology is Scala, followed by Spark, followed by Hadoop (followed by C++ and Cloud).
  • The top-paying mobile technology is Objective-C, followed by a toss-up between iOS, Android, Swift, SQL, C++, and C.
  • The top front-end techology stack is AngularJS, JavaScript, Node.js.
  • The top data science stack is Python, R, SQL; followed by Java, Python, SQL.
  • The most popular editor/IDE is a tie between Visual Studio and Notepad++.
    • Eclipse is more popular than IntelliJ, Android Studio, and NetBeans.
      • Vim is more popular than Eclipse.
  • Mac beat Windows and (somehow) Linux as most popular Developer OS.
  • Most developers got their current job through referrals by friends.
  • Most developers are self-taught or trained on-the-job.
  • Less than 6% of the responders to this survey are female…