Java

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These questions were only shown to respondents who chose Java as one of their three primary programming languages.

Which versions of Java do you regularly use?

30%

Java 17

6%

Java 16

4%

14%

Java 15

3%

8%

Java 14

2%

4%

Java 13

For many years, Java 8 has remained the leading Java version. However, its usage dropped by 12 percentage points in 2022. This is not surprising because in March 2022, Java 8 lost its Oracle Premier Support. Thus, many developers decided to migrate their applications to different versions. The emergence of Java 17, a new long-term support version, attracted a lot of users. Also, other versions like Java 11 and Java 16 have gained greater audiences.

How do you package your web applications?

This question was only answered by respondents who used application servers or frameworks as alternatives to application servers.

72%

I use an embedded server

41%

As artifacts

8%

I'm not sure

Most often Java developers package their applications as embedded servers. In 2022, the usage of artifacts decreased by 4 percentage points.

Which unit-testing frameworks do you use?

86%

JUnit

46%

Mockito

7%

PowerMock

6%

TestNG

6%

I don’t write unit tests for Java

5%

JMockit

4%

Spock

Between 2021 and 2022, the usage of unit-testing frameworks remained roughly the same.

What web frameworks do you use?

67%

Spring Boot

41%

Spring MVC

4%

Ktor

4%

JSF

4%

Quarkus

3%

Micronaut

2%

Vaadin

1%

Grails

1%

Helidon

4%

Other

23%

None

Spring Boot and Spring MVC keep their leading positions as the most used web frameworks for developing in Java. Between 2021 and 2022, Ktor, Quarkus, and Micronaut also grew by a few percentage points.

Which build systems do you regularly use?

73%

Maven

50%

Gradle

8%

Ant

2%

sbt

1%

Bazel

7%

None

The most used build systems for Java are Maven and Gradle.

Which versions of Java Enterprise specifications do you regularly use?

34%

None

5%

Jakarta 9

34%

Java EE 8 / Jakarta EE 8

6%

Java EE 7

3%

Java EE 6

1%

Java EE 5

5%

J2EE

20%

I'm not sure

Which JVM profilers do you regularly use?

38%

Integrated profiling tools in IntelliJ IDEA

18%

VisualVM

12%

JProfiler

8%

Java Mission Control

3%

NetBeans profiler

3%

Own custom tools

2%

YourKit

1%

async-profiler

1%

Other

37%

None

Which IDE / editor do you use the most for Java development?

78%

IntelliJ IDEA

8%

Eclipse or Eclipse-based

7%

Android Studio

5%

Visual Studio Code

2%

NetBeans

1%

Other

Despite all the measures we’ve taken to secure a representative pool of respondents, the results may be slightly shifted towards JetBrains product users, as they are more likely to take the survey.

IntelliJ IDEA remains the most used IDE among Java developers. In 2022, the usage of Eclipse or Eclipse-based IDEs slightly decreased.

What application servers do you regularly use?

59%

Apache Tomcat

14%

Jetty

5%

JBoss EAP

5%

WildFly

5%

WebLogic

2%

GlassFish

2%

WebSphere

1%

Payara

1%

Liberty

2%

Other

31%

None

Apache Tomcat is still the most used application server among Java developers. While Jetty and GlassFish lost a few percentage points, the usage of other servers remained almost the same.

Which frameworks do you use as an alternative to an application server?

67%

Spring Boot

12%

Netty

4%

Spark Java

3%

Undertow

3%

Vert.x

3%

Other

26%

None

Software developed by Java developers

38%

Websites

21%

System Software

21%

Utilities (small apps for small tasks)

21%

Finance

19%

Database / Data Storage

18%

Libraries / Frameworks

14%

IT Infrastructure

10%

Programming Tools

8%

Entertainment

Websites, system software, and utilities are the most frequently developed types of software among developers who use Java as one of their primary programming languages.

What programming languages have you used in the last 12 months?

63%

JavaScript

55%

SQL

50%

HTML / CSS

48%

Python

33%

shell scripting

27%

TypeScript

26%

Kotlin

23%

C++

19%

C

17%

Go

JavaScript, SQL, and HTML / CSS are the most frequently used languages and technologies among developers who use Java as one of their primary languages.

What programming languages have you studied at your educational institution?

85%

Java

53%

Python

52%

C

42%

C++

36%

JavaScript

18%

Assembly

15%

PHP

15%

C#

12%

Matlab

9%

R

Interestingly, 85% of Java developers studied Java at an educational institution and then continued using it as one of their major programming languages. Other frequently mentioned programming languages that Java developers learned at their educational institutions are Python, C, and C++.

What kind of learning content do you prefer?

Surprisingly, developers who use Java as one of their primary programming languages are split equally into two groups: those who prefer video and those who prefer written learning content.

Thank you for your time!

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