Kotlin

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

What do you use Kotlin for?

Many developers continue using Kotlin for Android and server-side development. Since last year, the share of multiplatform mobile development has risen by half, while the share of desktop development has risen by a third.

How long have you been using Kotlin?

The number of people using Kotlin for more than 4 years has doubled since last year – developers stay with Kotlin for a long time!

Who initiates the adoption of Kotlin in teams?

Developers like Kotlin, and they are the people who bring the language to their companies and teams and persuade their management to adopt it. It is the highest compliment to the JetBrains team which develops Kotlin!

What was your primary programming language before you switched to Kotlin?

Java remains the main source of new Kotlin developers.

What types of software do you develop with Kotlin?

While mobile development remains one of the main domains for Kotlin, a significant share – almost half – belongs to web backend development. Kotlin is not only for Android!

We are very grateful to our active Kotlin community that contributes to the entire ecosystem. About a third of respondents develop libraries and frameworks for Kotlin.

How did you learn Kotlin?

Kotlin is easy to learn, and the majority of Kotlin developers have become proficient by studying it themselves. If you want educational support, please sign up for the free Kotlin Basics track on JetBrains Academy or read the Atomic Kotlin book.

How satisfied are you with the IntelliJ IDEA performance for Kotlin?

More than 80% of Kotlin developers are satisfied with the performance of IntelliJ IDEA for Kotlin, including its responsiveness, code highlighting, and completion speed.

The JetBrains team continues investing into improving the performance of the existing Kotlin IDE plugin and is not stopping there. Currently, the team is developing a new generation of the high-performance K2 Kotlin compiler, which provides 2x better performance than the existing one, and an IDE plugin with the K2 compiler frontend. The K2 compiler is already available for preview for you to try out. The new IDE plugin is currently in active development – check out the progress and stay tuned.

How would you rate the overall quality of Kotlin support in the IntelliJ IDEA?

Over 90% of Kotlin developers are satisfied with the overall quality of Kotlin support in IntelliJ IDEA, including refactorings, code completion, and the debugging experience.