Questions in this section were shown to the developers who identified Rust as one of the languages they use.

Rust

How do you use Rust?

67%Hobby
64%Personal / side projects
16%Work
1%Other

Rust remains a language that is primarily used for hobbies (67%) or personal / side projects (64%). The share of Rust developers using it for work is only 16%.

How long have you been using Rust?

19%39%22%17% 3%Less than a monthFrom 1 month to 6 monthsFrom 6 months to 1 yearFrom 1 year to 3 yearsMore than 3 years

80% of Rust developers are new users of the language with 1 year of experience or less.

Which programming languages do you use in your projects along with Rust?

21%18%15%14%14% 9% 5% 4% 3% 2% 2%50%JavaScript / TypeScriptPythonGoC++CJavaC#PHPRubyElixirOtherNone

JavaScript / TypeScript remains the most popular language used along with Rust (21%). Python has added 4 percentage points since last year and has moved from fourth to second position (18%) of languages used with Rust.

How does Rust code interact with the other parts

55%Language interop
53%REST API
26%RPC
5%Other

What IDE / editor do you primarily use for Rust development?

40%24%19% 8% 2% 2% 5%Visual Studio CodeCLionIntelliJ IDEAVimSublime TextEmacsOther

Visual Studio Code remains the IDE most commonly used for Rust development (40%), followed by CLion (24%) and IntelliJ IDEA (19%).

How do you usually debug your Rust code?

`println!` or `dbg!` macros
UI debugging in an IDE
In the console
I don’t debug at all
60%23%10%7%

How do you usually debug your Rust code?

By IDE

61%18%13% 8% 0%`println!` or `dbg!` macrosUI debugging in an IDEIn the console (gdb, lldb, etc)I don’t debug at allOther

What profiling tools do you use for Rust?

By IDE

84%10% 5% 3% 2% 1%I don’t use profiling toolsperfgprofcallgrind/cachegrindDTraceOther

What profiling tools do you use for Rust?

By IDE

85% 8% 5% 3% 2% 1%I don’t use profiling toolsperfgprofcallgrind/cachegrindDTraceOther

What kind of projects do you develop in Rust?

49%38%33%21%12%10% 8% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 4% 2% 5%CLI ToolsSystems ProgrammingWeb DevelopmentNetwork ProgrammingDesktop / GUI ApplicationsEmbedded devices / Internet of ThingsAcademic / Scientific / NumericGamesDatabasesData Science / Machine Learning / AIDevOpsBlockchainSecurityFinance / CommerceOther

Rust is mostly used for such project types as CLI Tools (49%), Systems Programming (38%), and Web Development (33%).

What platform do you target with your Rust projects?

80%38%36%21%12% 3% 3% 1%LinuxWindowsmacOSWebAssemblyEmbeddediOSAndroidOther

How many developers work on your Rust codebase?

Only me
2–3
4–6
More than 10
7–10
86%9%3%2%0%

How many years of professional coding experience do you have?

Rust developers
Other developers
53%/61%47%/39%5 years or lessMore than 5 years

Rust developers are generally more experienced and are more likely to have senior positions than other developers.

Which of the following best describes the level of your current position?

Rust developers
Other developers
1%/4%16%/19%35%/36%47%/40% 1%/1%TraineeJuniorMiddleSeniorOther

Do you contribute to open source projects?

Rust developers
Other developers
74%/49%26%/51%Contribute to open-source projectsDon't contribute to open-source projects

Compared with other developers, a larger share of Rust developers contributes to open source projects.

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