As trends in software development come and go with lightning speed, one way to make sure your professional skills are relevant on the market, when it comes to specific programming languages and tools, is to learn which technologies big tech companies are using. Being proficient in a technology stack utilized by at least some of the top tech giants pretty much guarantees that your skills will be in-demand by employers for years to come.
Front-end: JavaScript, TypeScript.
Back-end: Java, C, C++, Python, Go. Database: Bigtable, MariaDB.
Front-end: JavaScript, PHP.
Back-end: Java, Python, Perl, Ruby.
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, C++, Perl.
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, Python, Haskell, PHP, Hack, XHP, Erlang, C++.
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, C, C++, Python, Go.
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, C++, Scala, Ruby.
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, Scala.
Historically, Facebook was written in PHP by Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskowitz. Now it also heavily relies on JavaScript for the frontend. Facebook’s mobile applications are written in Java. This language is also used to power a number of backend processes along with C and C++. The social network also uses MySQL as a key-value persistent storage, moving joins and logic onto the web servers.
JavaEE platform is used to create third-party Facebook applications that integrate with Facebook’s services via APIs.
Even though originally YouTube was built in PHP with the help of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, today the world’s most popular video hosting platform has to rely on Java as a way to handle huge amounts of daily traffic efficiently.
Java plays a particularly important role in YouTube’s mobile and web applications, as well as YouTube API building.
Twitter, on the other hand, is one of the most illustrative examples of a tech company switching to Java along the way and winning from such a decision significantly. Originally written in Ruby on Rails, in its first years of rising popularity Twitter had major and frequient performance problems. Twitter’s website down page has even become famous and gave birth to the Fail Whale meme. That was until the company moved most of its stack to JVM, finishing this process by around 2013. Most of Twitter’s backend code was re-written in Scala.
The professional social network Linkedin is an example of a big website betting heavily on Java from the start. According to the website’s developers, LinkedIn is written in 99% Java, with C++, Ruby on Rails and Groovy/Grails as additional programming languages they are using for minor purposes. Utilising JVM allows LinkedIn to be able to demonstrate a very reliable performance all the time even when the usage traffic is peaking.
As a company that is very concerned about its products being highly scalable, reliable and able to maintain low latency and high durability, Google also has very strong reliance on Java for the large chunk of its backend processes through the Internet giant’s countless services and applications. It is well-known that Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, was working in Sun Microsystems early in his career where he supervised the Oak Project which later was released as Java. Eric Schmidt promoted the idea of building Android entirely in Java.
Which programming languages top tech companies are using?
Now, it's not a secret that Java is one of the leading programming languages in terms of enterprise use and probably the most important enterprise backend language in the world. Based on a study done by Coding Dojo, analyzing the most popular programming languages used by the top 25 unicorn companies, Java, Python, JavaScript, C/C++, and Ruby are the five most popular programming languages amongst enterprises. Of course, Java is used alongside other programming languages, but today it is truly difficult to find a major technology company that is not relying on Java to power at least some of its processes. Here is a list of top tech companies and the main programming languages they are using.- Google
Front-end: JavaScript, TypeScript.
Back-end: Java, C, C++, Python, Go. Database: Bigtable, MariaDB.
- Apple
Front-end: JavaScript, PHP.
Back-end: Java, Python, Perl, Ruby.
- Amazon
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, C++, Perl.
- Facebook
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, Python, Haskell, PHP, Hack, XHP, Erlang, C++.
- YouTube
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, C, C++, Python, Go.
- Twitter
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, C++, Scala, Ruby.
- eBay
Front-end: JavaScript.
Back-end: Java, Scala.
Programming languages used by non-tech top companies
When it comes to other industries and non-tech companies, the top ones also typically use Java. Here are several examples of top companies and the programming languages they rely on to build their websites, services and applications.1. Retail.
Walmart
Java, Python, JavaScript, Perl.
Costco
Java, Python, JavaScript, C.
Home Depot
Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Ruby.
2. Healthcare.
CVS Health
Java, JavaScript, Swift.
UnitedHealth Group
Java, JavaScript, Python.
McKesson
Java, JavaScript.
CardinalHealth
Java, JavaScript, Python.
3. Finance.
JP Morgan
Java, Python, JavaScript, Perl, Ruby.
Citigroup
Java, Python, C++, C#
Wells Fargo
Java, Python, JavaScript, C#.
4. Telecommunications.
AT&T
Java, Python, JavaScript, Perl.
Verizon
Java, Python, JavaScript, Swift.
Comcast
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, Ruby.
5. Aerospace and defence.
Boeing
Java, Python, JavaScript, Perl, Ruby.
Raytheon
Java, C++, C#.
GO TO FULL VERSION