As a technical hiring platform used to evaluate hundreds of thousands of software engineering candidates each year, we have a lot of data. (Like, a lot.) We know which coding languages candidates use, which skills companies are assessing for, and how candidates perform in various skill areas.

But this year, our Skills Evaluation Lab wanted to go deeper than just platform insights. They wanted to know more about the candidates who take assessments on CodeSignal: how much coding experience and education they have, how they feel about the tech hiring process, what they’re currently doing in their careers, and more. 

Our 2023 State of Engineer Hiring Survey showcases the key findings from our survey of thousands of candidates who took a Certified Evaluation on CodeSignal. Here are three of the most exciting things we learned:

Back-end engineers earn the most

Among our survey respondents, back-end engineers reported the highest salaries, with a median annual salary of $120,000 to $139,999. 

They are followed by full-stack and front-end developers, who had median annual salaries of $100,000 to $119,999. 

Python 3 is the most commonly-used coding language 

An overwhelming majority—78%—of survey respondents reported that they frequently use Python 3. This was followed by Java (62% of respondents), JavaScript and NodeJS (40%), and C++ (37%).

We additionally found that Python 3 dominates as the most popular coding language across specific engineering roles, with the exception of front-end development (their most frequently used coding language is JavaScript/NodeJS).

Experience, not education, is associated with coding skill

In addition to learning what coding languages engineers are using, what roles they hold, and how much they’re paid, we wanted to know more about how a candidate’s background (their experience and education) correlated to their level of coding skill, measured by their score on a CodeSignal Certified Evaluation.

What our Skills Evaluation Lab researchers found was that years of coding experience—not education level—predicted a candidate’s coding score. On average, the more years of experience candidates had, the higher they scored on a CodeSignal assessment. This included experience from any source: work, school, or learning as a hobby.

Learn more

Interested in digging deeper into these findings and our methodology? Read our 2023 State of Engineer Hiring Survey.