StackOverflow 2023 Survey Results

5 min readMar 7, 2024

Hi guys, in this article I have tried to summarise some of the most interesting facts about the latest StackOverflow survey :)

Technology

Most popular technologies

Docker is the top-used tool among all respondents

Jira and Confluence are the top two async tools among all developers

27% of respondents use markdown files as an async tool.

People who are learning to code are using GitHub Discussions more than markdown files and turn to Notion and Trello more than professional developers.

Programming, scripting, and markup languages

JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language.

Python has overtaken SQL as the third most commonly used language

Professional developer's top three technologies are the same as last year — JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and SQL.

Databases

This year, PostgreSQL took over the first place spot from MySQL.

Web frameworks and technologies

Node.js and React.js are the two most common web technologies used by all respondents.

jQuery and Express are the next two popular web technologies

Cloud platforms

AWS remains the most used cloud platform for all respondents.

AWS handily makes it to the top spot, almost doubling the percentage of the second most used cloud platform for all respondents, Azure.

Tools

Integrated development environment

Visual Studio Code remains the preferred IDE among all developers, increasing its use among those learning to code compared to professional developers (78% vs. 74%).

The three most popular synchronous tools are universal for all respondents: Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom. Zoom was top of the list last year but is in third place this year with about 10 percentage points fewer people having worked with it in the past year.

For those learning, Discord and WhatsApp are used more than any of the top three (70% and 45% respectively).

AI

Sentiment and usage

70% of all respondents are using or are planning to use AI tools in their development process this year. Those learning to code are more likely than professional developers to be using or use AI tools (82% vs. 70%).

Worked with vs. want to work with

42% of ChatGPT users want to use Google Bard or Bing AI next year. These users are enjoying their experience: 79% want to use ChatGPT again next year.

AI Developer Tools

GitHub Copilot is the overall pick for the most used AI developer tool with 55% of respondents using it this past year, quadrupling the second top pick of Tabnine at 13%.

Work

Employment

For all respondents this year there was a slight increase in “Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed”

Work environment

Hybrid is here to stay for larger organizations; over half of employees in 5,000+ organizations are hybrid. The smaller organizations are most likely to be in-person, with one out of five organizations with fewer than 20 people reporting being in-person.

More developers this year are working in person than last year (+2%). Return-to-office initiatives aside, coding easily lends itself to fully remote work, and one-third or more of all organization sizes are still fully remote.

Educational attainment

Most professional developers have attained a Bachelor’s degree (47%) with a quarter attaining a Master’s degree (26%).

Of the developers who are learning to code, more than half are between 18–24 years old, so it makes sense that they are more likely to not have a Bachelor’s degree. They are likely still in school.

Top paying technologies

Zig is the highest-paid language to know this year (a new addition), while Clojure gets knocked from the top spot with a 10% decrease from 2022.

Dart and SAS saw the highest increase in median pay during 2023, growing more than 20% year-over-year.

Learning to code

Online resources to learn how to code

Like previous years, technical documentation and Stack Overflow are the top online resources people use when learning to code, with blogs rounding out the top three. Well-written documentation, an active community providing solutions, and regular posts are the trifecta of enabling people to teach themselves about technology.

Developers see value in a variety of other resources like how-to videos, written tutorials, books, and forums — they piece together the resources and formats that work best for their learning style.