The Most Popular Languages in Your City: Coding Dojo

by Nate Swanner May 10, 2017 3 min read

As with real estate, programming languages can have different values depending on their location. Coding Dojo, an online learning platform that also hosts bootcamps, has provided a glimpse into which languages are popular in the densest metro areas in the United States. Demand for certain languages varies across the country, pointed out Coding Dojo CEO Michael Choi, adding: “We’re always revising our curriculum to prepare our students for the rapidly changing technology job market. This analysis shows that the demand for coding skills is local, and knowing a language that will help you get a job in San Jose may not get you hired in Washington D.C.” While some languages pop up frequently on the firm's list (hi there, JavaScript!), others come and go. Speros Misirlakis, Coding Dojo's Head of Curriculum, points out that such variation is even driving curriculum: “This data backs up much of what we’ve known anecdotally in the developer community for years, like the lukewarm job demand for developer favorite language Ruby on Rails and just how high of a demand there is for Java. It’s a good reminder that the technology developers like and talk about are not necessarily the same ones that businesses use. Based on this research, we’re removing Ruby on Rails and Swift classes from some of our locations and adding Java, C# and PHP to others to better prepare our students for careers in those job markets.” Ruby on Rails is not having its best moment in some places, only breaking into the top five languages in two locations: San Jose and Atlanta. For Coding Dojo, this means moderate demand at best. "Yet it is perceived as popular and taught in almost all coding bootcamps," the firm added in a note. “San Jose was the only location where C# did not rank in its top five languages, likely because of Apple’s presence there.” A fair anecdote... but C# only ranked fourth in the Seattle area where Microsoft is headquartered. Here’s a more interesting takeaway as it relates to large tech companies and their favored languages: In San Jose, the top language is Python – and the top hiring company for Python is Apple. Swift ranks fourth in that location. While Swift is up and coming, it’s still a work in progress on many fronts, and is not ready to usurp more established languages. Below you can see Coding Dojo’s entire list. It notes the top languages by location, with a parenthetical annotation for the top hiring company in that area for the specified language. We should also note that Coding Dojo’s methodology involved data from Dice, as well as interviews with its own instructors and various other data points.