HackerRank has published its 2023 Developer Skills Report using data from its testing platform to reveal which are the most in-demand skills and programming languages. Java is firmly the most in-demand language and TypeScript is the one with the greatest increase in demand.

We frequently report on the relative popularity of programming languages based on a variety of factors. HackerRank's data is different in that it relates specifically to demand by employers and is based on the number of coding assessments it performs as part of its remote hiring service..

HackerRank started out as competition community for programmers before becoming a technical assessment and remote interview solution for hiring developers. There are over 21 million developers in the HackerRank community - about 40% of the worldwide population. Rather than conduct a survey for its 2023 Developer Skills report, HackerRank has used data from its testing platform.

Some employers specify the language they want used for skills assesment and this chart ranks programming languages by the number of tests in 2022 in which the language was mandated: 

The message from this chart is that Java is the language that hiring managers are most likely to specify. A combination of the high demand for Java developers and the fact that Java is the established language of the job hiring process accounts for Java having been mandated for 20,208 test during 2022. 

There is a big gap between the top five languages - Java, Python, SQL and JavaScript  - and the rest. Javascript was required for 7658 tests in 2022 whereas Bash was mandated for 1969 and at the bottom of the chart Ruby was demanded just 77 times.

HackerRank comments that:

For 2022, SQL has been growing at a steady rate and managed to surpass C++, but we’re unlikely to see any further place-trading among the top five in 2023. 

Only 20% or so of assessments mandated a specific programming language. So what about the other 80% in which developers have the freedom to choose their language? 

Java is still top, preferred for 558,832 tests, but Python is a much closer second, used in 547,018 tests. SQL is down in 6th position (100,232) between C# (100,393) and C (93,636). Kotlin, which isn't included in the first chart, comes into the second in 11th place with 6,182 tests, ahead of Ruby with 5,927. R comes bottom in this listing, with just 129 tests, wheras it was in 10th place in the previous one. The missing language in the second chart is Bash.

As we frequently report demand for programming skills is growing. HackerRank quantified the overall market growth for 2022 at 138% and, using the data on tests where a specific language was mandated, indexed individual language growth against total market growth:

From this chart it is TypeScript that has experienced the greatest increase in demand for assessment. The jump was from 99 tests in 2021 to 388 in 2022, an increase of 392% which was 282% compared to the total market trend. 

HackerRank also notes:

In terms of growth relative to the market, top-ranked Java is actually growing slightly slower than the market. As are C++ and JavaScript. Meanwhile Python and SQL demand grew. While Python’s growth may mean that it narrows the gap on Java, again, it’s unlikely to lead to any place-trading.

Looking ahead to 2023, HackerRank expects that languages that grew in 2021 and 2022 will continue to grow and isn't anticipating any major place-trading among the top-ranking languages.

More Information

2023 HackerRank Developer Skills Report 

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