Software Engineering in 2025: Somewhere between “AAAAHHHH!” and “Actually, This Is Fine”
A review of the Stack Overflow and Pragmatic Engineer developer surveys.
t’s the time of year where Stack Overflow and The Pragmatic Engineer release their developer surveys. These surveys gauge the temperature of the developer world and give the reader a chance to look behind the curtain of the software industry. The world has changed in the last couple of years and I thought it would be interesting to take a look across the different surveys, analyse common trends and see if anyone else feels the same as I do.
To summarise how I’m feeling: “AAAAHHHHHHHHHH… actually this is fine (and actually not the dog in the fire meme).”
Stack Overflow: A shrinking but still significant voice
Stack Overflow’s survey remains the heavyweight in terms of scale, though its reach is shrinking. In 2023, the survey had 90,000 respondents. That fell to 65,000 in 2024 and 49,000 this year. I suspect that reflects broader changes in site usage, as more people turn to AI for answers.
However, fewer responses don’t make the results irrelevant. The people who continue to use Stack Overflow could represent a more specific group, perhaps those less inclined toward AI-driven ways of working.
This theory seems to play out in the sentiment data. In 2023 and 2024, more than 70% of respondents reported a positive view of AI tools. In 2025, that number dropped to just 60%. Professionals remain slightly more positive (61%) compared to those learning to code (53%), but the overall trend is clear: enthusiasm for AI is cooling within the Stack Overflow audience.
There’s also a growing distrust: 46% of developers say they don’t trust the accuracy of AI-generated code, up from just 31% in 2024. Only a tiny sliver (around 3%) “highly trust” outputs. This is also in line with my own experience of AI, always read the output!
The Pragmatic Engineer: smaller sample, different lens
The Pragmatic Engineer survey, with around 3000 respondents, is smaller in scale but offers a slightly different perspective. While Stack Overflow has the reach, PE’s readership tends to be more engaged with industry shifts and emerging practices, so its findings often feel more forward-leaning.
Once again, AI is a central theme. Around 85% of developers say they are using or plan to use AI in their daily workflows, closely mirroring Stack Overflow’s numbers. However, given this survey’s smaller size, it gives visibility into cutting-edge shifts such as “vibe coding” and the tools behind it.
The common groiund
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