Developer Skills Report

A brief summary of HackerRank’s 2025 report

As CTO, one of my biggest concern is how the engineering work is going to be affected by recent advances in AI. Do not misjudge me, it is not a matter of potential layoffs and savings, but a matter of upskilling my team so they can be still relevant in the future as professionals.

Today, it came into my attention HackerRank’s report on developer skills for 2025. So following my previous post on the Outlook for Programmers, I will summarize my understanding on how things are, or going to be for us.

The report reveals a paradoxical job market for developers, a significant and expanding role for artificial intelligence in the field, and a notable disconnect between what developers seek in a career and what companies currently offer. It was based on a global survey of over 13,000 developers, engineering managers, and other professionals, alongside HackerRank’s platform data.

The two realities

Despite an increase in hiring, a striking 74% of developers find it challenging to secure a job. This difficulty is not uniform across all experience levels. The hiring recovery has disproportionately favored senior and lead developers, with year-over-year hiring activity for these roles up 22% and 19% respectively. In stark contrast, hiring for junior and entry-level positions has seen minimal growth, at 9% and 7% respectively.

Developers express frustration with numerous aspects of the hiring process, including “ghost jobs,” slow response times from companies, and a convoluted hiring process with too many rounds and unclear expectations. A significant point of contention is the nature of technical assessments. An overwhelming 96% of developers believe problem-solving should be prioritized over memorization, yet many feel that current tests, often heavy on algorithms, do not accurately reflect the skills needed for the job.

AI

AI has become an integral part of a developer’s workflow, with 97% of developers using at least one AI assistant. ChatGPT remains the most popular tool, used by 89% of developers. The impact of AI on productivity is significant, with developers reporting that AI generates an average of 29% of their code. However, there is a growing “acceleration gap,” where heavy AI adopters report substantially higher productivity gains.

This increased productivity has led to heightened expectations. While 67% of developers feel increased pressure to deliver faster due to AI, 84% of engineering leaders have raised their productivity expectations for their teams. Despite its widespread use, developers remain skeptical of the hype surrounding AI, viewing many of its applications as “overhyped”.

Developers are also leveraging AI for their own professional growth. It is a popular tool for learning new concepts, with 70% of ChatGPT users turning to it for educational purposes. AI is being used as a personalized tutor, for summarizing complex information, and for practicing new skills.

Career growth

Career advancement and keeping up with new technologies are the top concerns for developers in 2025. This focus on growth is a key driver of career decisions, with 40% of developers planning to leave their current jobs within a year. The primary reasons for seeking new opportunities are better pay, the desire to switch to a different industry, uninteresting or unchallenging projects, and limited opportunities for advancement and learning.

A lack of investment in learning and development is a significant factor in a developer’s decision to leave. A staggering 61% of developers who report having no learning opportunities at work plan to leave within a year. When developers do focus on upskilling, their priorities are clear: back-end development (with a focus on Spring Boot), data science/machine learning, and front-end development (with a focus on React) are the most sought-after skill domains.

When it comes to the work environment, developers have a strong preference for remote or hybrid arrangements, with 79% favoring these options. In the U.S., only 10% of developers prefer to work in an office full-time.

Epilogue

It seems that all the recent advancements in AI and the massive layoffs in 2024 created a mixed ecosystem which is still shaping in 2025. In my opinion, through AI the 10x engineer will be the new standard and single (or small) teams are going to dominate the next rounds of companies. We’ll see, the future seems really interesting.