Decoding Stack OverFlow Developer Survey 2024: Top 5 programming languages among Developers

In today’s day and age, as a Computer Science graduate, that too in India, comes with many known and unknown challenges. The biggest of them being getting a well-paid job, which obviously after spending a huge chunk of money, does matter a lot. As per latest statistics by The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), as of June 2024, India’s unemployment rate was 9.2%, which is an eight-month high. This is a very concerning figure which raises questions on us too.

As a result, one has to be very cautious and prepared as for what their next major step path should be or what career path should they choose.

Being a CS graduate, we also have many paths we can go on. Web Dev, Android Dev, ML Engineer, DevOps Engineer are just to name a few of many career paths.

But above all those, another main factor on which one should clarity is which programming language should one learn, which helps in deciding one of those paths.

Now, being a True Developer or Programmer, also means that you trust Stack OverFlow with every cell of your body.

Apart from blessing developers and programmers with solutions to their problems, Stack OverFlow also releases a survey every year called “Stack OverFlow Developer Survey”.

So, in this article, let’s check out the top 5 programming languages used by Professional Developers, as researched in Stack OverFlow Developer Survey 2024, and understand what that actually means.

1. JavaScript — It is a high-level, interpreted/JIT compiled, single threaded, garbage collected, prototype based, multi-paradigm based, dynamically typed programming language with a non-blocking event loop. Made by Brendan Eich in 1995, that too in just a week, to spice up the pre-existing old boring static websites and add some interactivity in them, JavaScript reins supreme as the most used programming language professionally with 64.6% of the Devs using it. It’s most well-known for building Front End Web Applications alongside it’s uses in Server-side development with NodeJS and Express and Mobile App Dev using React Native and Desktop Apps using Electron.

JS having this much of usage in the professional industry means there is a huge demand of Devs in Web Dev field. Although there is a saturation in that field right now, but better skills do guarantee a high paying job. Opting for any of the above mentioned requires you to have a good experience with respective technologies.

2. Python — Python, also being a high level, interpreted language, with simple and beginner friendly syntax, grabs the second position in the survey with 46.9% people using it frequently in their jobs. Python mainly used for AI and ML, alongside Back End Web, Front End Dev (Low-Key), API development, Embedded systems programming, has a great ecosystem for almost everything you could think of.

The hype and boom in AI and ML fields can be understood as the reason why Python is used this much by Devs and Programmers around the Globe. Almost every ML model is made using Python along with popular libraries like Pandas, NumPy and Scikit-Learn. For Deep learning and Neural Networks, TensorFlow by Google and PyTorch by Meta are go to options which go very well with Python. Apart from that Embedded systems use Python in the name of MicroPython to simplify the process. StreamLit and Mesop (by Google) are two popular choices for quickly prototyping ML and DS projects and show them to the world without requiring knowledge of Web Dev. FastAPI, Django and Flask are some technologies for Back End Dev in Python. As the time progresses, Python is predicted to grow more and more, so if you haven’t yet, Start learning Python ASAP.

3. TypeScript — TypeScript, created by Anders Hejlsberg in 2010 at Microsoft, is a subset of JavaScript with type safety and such other features. It has 43.4% of usage rate in the industry. Now it was not like a fun little project which no one cared about, which is the reason why we are talking about it here at the first place. It solved many “problems” as some people may think of it, of JavaScript. TypeScript has it’s compiler which compiles TypeScript code to normal plain vanilla JavaScript code.

As JavaScript is a dynamically typed language, which basically means that one doesn’t need to specify the type of variable while defining it, causes many serious major issues, like you can use an object which does not even exist or assign a numeric value to a variable which should hold a string value, which may not seem as problems while writing the code, but tester and users might flame you for the issues that can cause. TypeScript solves such problems by adding type safety to JavaScript. TypeScript demands developers to specify the types, especially for large data, as it is capable of inferring the type of simple variables. It also enables us to define custom types or Interfaces, which are very useful while handling large data. Now even Deno, a runtime environment for JS, alongside Bun, also support it out of the box, without need of manual installation of TS compiler, which is a feature missing in NodeJS.

TypeScript because of the features it brings to the table, and the huge problem of such high scale it solves, does deserve to be here. It is used almost everywhere, where JavaScript is used. Front End, Back End, Mobile Apps, everywhere. Alongside it’s uses, it’s steep learning curve also makes it a highly used language, so one should indeed give it a try, if you know and want to work with JS of course.

4. Java — Java is a high-level, object-oriented programming language that was developed by James Gosling and his team at Sun Microsystems in 1995 which has 30% share in the global codebase. Designed with the philosophy of “write once, run anywhere,” Java is known for its platform independence, which allows developers to run Java code on any device or operating system that supports the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

Java’s syntax is derived from C and C++, making it familiar to many developers, while its object-oriented nature allows for code reuse and modularity, which is crucial for large-scale software development. Java is widely used in various domains, from web and mobile applications to enterprise software, big data technologies, and even in embedded systems. Frameworks like Spring, Hibernate, and Struts have expanded its capabilities, particularly in building robust server-side applications.

Java’s popularity in the industry is sustained by its vast ecosystem, strong community support, and continuous updates that enhance its performance, security, and features. It is the backbone of Android app development, with Android Studio using Java as its primary language for building mobile apps. Java’s robustness, scalability, and security features make it a go-to choice for developing mission-critical applications, and its widespread adoption ensures that Java developers are always in demand across various industries.

5. C Family — The C family consists of C, C++, and C# (C Sharp), three closely related yet distinct programming languages that have had a profound impact on software development.

C# has 28.8%, C++ has 20.3% while C has 16.9% of the usage stat.

C is a low-level, procedural programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie in the early 1970s at Bell Labs. Known for its efficiency, it forms the backbone of many operating systems and embedded systems due to its ability to interact closely with hardware. C++, an extension of C created by Bjarne Stroustrup in the 1980s, introduced object-oriented programming, adding classes, inheritance, and polymorphism to C’s foundation, making it ideal for large-scale software projects like game development, system software, and real-time simulation. C# developed by Microsoft in the early 2000s as part of its .NET initiative, is a high-level, statically-typed language that combines the power of C++ with the ease (or hardness) of Java. It’s widely used for developing Windows applications, web services, and enterprise software, thanks to its rich set of libraries and robust security features. It is also widely used in Game Dev.

The C family’s versatility and performance make it a staple in the software industry, and learning these languages can open doors to a variety of career opportunities, from systems programming to high-performance application development.

6. Honourable Mentions — I would also like to give honourable mentions to PHP with 18.7% used for web development, Go (GoLang) (by Google) with 14.4% which is a new language mostly finding it’s use case in Containerizing Services, networking etc, and Rust (by Mozilla) with 11.7% share in the global codebase being used for Blockchain Development and systems level programming. Also, a fun fact, the Adblocker in popular browser Brave is written in Rust.

With the resource as huge and valuable as a survey by Stack OverFlow itself, we can now understand which fields and career paths should one follow and what skills or technologies to learn. There are many more details and stats in the survey so I’d recommend you to go through it yourself.

With this I would like to conclude the article, with a hope that this helps you in your career and life decisions.

Thank You,
Aayush Bhusari