Who is driving traffic to StackOverflow?
What databases are in high demand in 2020? What plays a big role in developers’ choice of job?
or StackOverflow Developer Survey 2020 Analysis
For ten years now, StackOverflow has been conducting an annual Developer Survey. The survey results have been made publicly available, and they have been analyzed from many different angles to bring light into a developer profile and trends in the industry.
As a developer, I am a frequent user of StackOverflow, and always find it very helpful. As a user, I am amazed how much community cooperation takes place in StackOverflow. I have specific questions that I want to find out answers to by analyzing the latest Developer Survey result as of now (October 2020). The survey was conducted in February 2020, right before the whole world entered the Covid-19 quarantine.
StackOverflow Developer Survey 2020 is a big survey with near 60 questions. 64461 respondents filled the survey. Approaching a dataset without a specific question, one might find herself in a big and messy endeavor. After reading several Medium posts about previous years’ StackOverflow surveys, I contemplated what I am interested most in discovering from this dataset.
I am a data professional, and I would like to know what databases are in high demand among developers these days. I also want to draw a profile of a StackOverflow frequent user. And lastly, I would like to know what factors play a major role in developers’ decision regarding a job.
I will try to find answers to below questions from the survey results.
My analysis process consists of three parts:
1. Data Exploration — where I explore the dataset and its attributes.
2. Data Preparation — where I clean, tidy, and transform the dataset.
3. Data Analysis — where I conduct analysis and find answers to my research questions.
What is the most popular database in 2020?
MysQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server are leading the way. MySQL and PostgreSQL are both open source, and one of the well-maintained database systems. SQLite, a lightweight database system used mostly with light weight web applications is close to the top. MongoDB, a NoSQL database system that is used mostly for big data, is on the rise.
I also investigated what databases are desired by developers for next year. It seems like the popularity of PostgreSQL and MongoDB will continue. Redis, SQLite and Elasticsearch are joining the higher ranks next year.
What is the profile of a StackOverflow frequent user?
Developers visit StackOverflow in different frequencies. It looks like most respondent developers use the site frequently.
The survey results show a huge gender gap between men and women. This is the distribution of people who responded to the question about gender.
I investigated the distribution of StackOverflow visit frequency by gender. Not surprisingly, men use StackOverflow more than women.
For better analysis, I zoomed into respondents who visit StackOverflow multiple times per day or Daily or almost daily. I will call them StackOverflow frequent users.
It looks like developers with ten years of coding experience are StackOverflow star users. We can conclude that developers with four to fifteen years of coding experience visit the site most. On the contrary, developers with more than fifteen years of experience tend to use the site less.
I investigated if there is any difference in StackOverflow usage between developers who have coding experience in general and developers who code professionally. It turns out developers with one to five years of professional coding experience use the site most. It may suggest that developers tend to have a few years of coding experience before they start coding as a job. Similar to the above chart, more years of professional coding meaning lesser use of StackOverflow.
StackOverflow frequent users are young. Developers between twenty five and thirty two contribute to the most of the traffic to the site.
StackOverflow frequent users are developers by profession. This does not come surprising as we have discovered this insight from the previous charts.
StackOverflow frequent users are from United States, India, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It is interesting insight not to find China in this trend.
StackOverflow frequent users are hobbyist coders on top of their developer profession.
Most of StackOverflow frequent users are not looking for a job but are open to new opportunities.
What is the most important job factor for developers in 2020?
Majority of developers make their decisions regarding a job based on the technical languages, frameworks, and other technologies. This should not be surprising, as many other professionals may do the same. Most developers consider office environment and company culture, flex time or a flexible schedule, and opportunities for growth more important in a job consideration. Remote work option is a rising factor for developers when considering a job.
Conclusion
MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MS SQL Server are the most popular databases. MongoDB and Redis are rising to a higher demand in the next year.
StackOverflow frequent user is a young male who is a developer by profession with about five years of professional coding experience who also likes to code as a hobby, and has been coding for about ten years in general, and is from the North America , India or Europe, has a stable job, but is open to new opportunities.
When considering a job, developers focus on technical languages, frameworks, and technology that they will be working with. They also value office environment, company culture, flexible time, flexible schedule, professional development, and remote work options.
Data analysis of the survey results has been educational, as I had to seek out ways to clean and tidy the data to perform the analysis. It also has been exciting to find out the interesting insights. I would be interested in comparing what have changed in the post-pandemic era in developers’ professional and life choices in the upcoming survey. My code can be found on GitHub.
