Backend Developer skills: what 2,158 job postings ask for
We read 2,158 open backend developer job postings from 1,013 companies. SQL / databases appears in 64% and AWS in 49%. Beyond the language, employers most often ask for CI/CD (34%), code review (33%) and monitoring & analytics (32%).
The 15 skills backend developers are asked for most
Share of 2,158 open postings that mention each skill, anywhere in the job description.
All 61 skills, with the share that lists them as a hard requirement
| Skill | Mentioned | Required | Margin of error |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL / databases | 64% | 58.4% | ±2 pts |
| AWS | 48.6% | 39.2% | ±2.1 pts |
| Java / Kotlin (backend) | 41.2% | 39.2% | ±2.1 pts |
| Python | 40.3% | 37.2% | ±2.1 pts |
| Message queues / event streaming | 38.7% | 31% | ±2.1 pts |
| Kubernetes | 38.5% | 29.3% | ±2.1 pts |
| Distributed systems | 37.2% | 34.6% | ±2 pts |
| CI/CD | 34.2% | 29.2% | ±2 pts |
| Code review | 33.1% | 32.7% | ±2 pts |
| Docker / containers | 32.8% | 25.1% | ±2 pts |
| Monitoring & analytics | 32.4% | 29.1% | ±2 pts |
| Mentoring | 31.6% | 30.9% | ±2 pts |
| Performance tuning (latency, throughput) | 30.2% | 27.8% | ±1.9 pts |
| Go | 27.9% | 25.5% | ±1.9 pts |
| Automated testing | 27.7% | 26.7% | ±1.9 pts |
| REST APIs | 27% | 25.4% | ±1.9 pts |
| Microservices | 26.4% | 24.4% | ±1.9 pts |
| AI coding tools | 26.2% | 24.3% | ±1.9 pts |
| Architecture / system design | 25.4% | 24.7% | ±1.8 pts |
| NoSQL (MongoDB, DynamoDB…) | 25.1% | 21% | ±1.8 pts |
| Google Cloud | 22.4% | 17.5% | ±1.8 pts |
| API design | 21.4% | 19.3% | ±1.7 pts |
| Redis / caching | 20.7% | 16.8% | ±1.7 pts |
| Git | 18.6% | 16.9% | ±1.6 pts |
| TypeScript | 17.9% | 14.6% | ±1.6 pts |
| Agile / Scrum | 17.8% | 15.9% | ±1.6 pts |
| Azure | 17.2% | 13.9% | ±1.6 pts |
| Building LLM features | 17% | 12.9% | ±1.6 pts |
| Data pipelines (Spark, Airflow, ETL) | 15.3% | 12.5% | ±1.5 pts |
| Infrastructure as code (Terraform) | 15.3% | 10.7% | ±1.5 pts |
| Node.js | 14.4% | 12.6% | ±1.5 pts |
| Concurrency / multithreading | 11.3% | 10.7% | ±1.3 pts |
| React | 11.1% | 7.2% | ±1.3 pts |
| .NET / C# | 10.1% | 9.8% | ±1.3 pts |
| C++ | 8.3% | 7.2% | ±1.2 pts |
| JavaScript | 8.2% | 6% | ±1.2 pts |
| Rust | 8% | 7% | ±1.1 pts |
| Linux | 7.9% | 7.2% | ±1.1 pts |
| Authentication (OAuth, SSO) | 7.6% | 6.3% | ±1.1 pts |
| GraphQL | 7.6% | 5.7% | ±1.1 pts |
| Search (Elasticsearch) | 7.4% | 5.3% | ±1.1 pts |
| Working with designers / UX | 5.6% | 5.5% | ±1 pts |
| Scala | 5.2% | 4.6% | ±0.9 pts |
| Ruby / Rails | 5% | 4.4% | ±0.9 pts |
| Serverless | 4.3% | 3.3% | ±0.9 pts |
| Web security | 4% | 3.5% | ±0.8 pts |
| WebSockets / real-time | 3.7% | 2.8% | ±0.8 pts |
| End-to-end testing (Cypress, Playwright) | 3.2% | 2.8% | ±0.7 pts |
| PHP | 2.5% | 2.2% | ±0.7 pts |
| Angular | 2.4% | 1.3% | ±0.6 pts |
| Next.js | 2.1% | 1.4% | ±0.6 pts |
| CSS | 2% | 1.3% | ±0.6 pts |
| Web performance | 2% | 1.9% | ±0.6 pts |
| HTML | 1.9% | 1.2% | ±0.6 pts |
| Vue | 1.8% | 1.2% | ±0.6 pts |
| Design systems | 1.5% | 1.2% | ±0.5 pts |
| Elixir / Erlang | 1.5% | 1.4% | ±0.5 pts |
| Vercel / Netlify / edge | 1.3% | 1.1% | ±0.5 pts |
| React Native | 1.1% | 0.6% | ±0.4 pts |
| State management | 1.1% | 0.8% | ±0.4 pts |
| Accessibility (WCAG) | 1.1% | 0.8% | ±0.4 pts |
“Required” excludes mentions that appear only under nice-to-haves or in a description of the company's own stack. Margin of error is the 95% interval for a sample of 2,158 postings.
Which language do employers want?
No single language dominates. Java / Kotlin leads with 41% of postings, against 40% for Python, 28% for Go and 18% for TypeScript.
A posting that accepts “Java, Go or Python” counts for each of them, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Databases & storage
The stack employers hire for
Java / Kotlin (backend) plus the technology each layer names most often (in at least 15% of Java / Kotlin (backend) postings).
Shares after Java / Kotlin (backend) are of Java / Kotlin (backend) postings. Few postings ask for the whole combination. See the full stack breakdown and check yours →
Beyond the language
Once the language matches, these are the skills postings ask for most. Below them: architecture, APIs, cloud and operations.
Architecture
APIs & auth
Cloud & infrastructure
Delivery & operations
AI skills: using tools vs building features
Two different asks that often get mixed up. We count them separately.
Company descriptions don't count: an AI company that says “we build agentic AI” in its intro isn't asking you for LLM skills unless the role itself does.
How much do backend developers earn?
Base salary ranges that employers publish in their postings. 68% of backend developer postings in the United States include one.
Each posting counts at the midpoint of its range. The typical range itself runs from $172K to $235K (median of the lower and upper ends).
By level (United States)
Median by level; in brackets, the number of postings. Only levels with at least 30 postings that publish a range.
| Country | Postings | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 61 | CA$140K | CA$166K | CA$188K |
Level and experience
Of the postings whose title states a level, 93% are senior or above. 32% of titles state no level.
Level in the job title
Minimum years of experience
Share of all postings; the other 42% state no minimum.
Do you need a degree?
Mostly not: 60% of postings don't mention one.
Where the jobs are
37% of postings are in the United States; 24% are fully remote. A posting can list several countries.
How we count
- Source. Every open posting on the public job boards of 1,013+ companies that hire through Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, crawled November 2026. Test boards and empty postings are removed.
- One job, one count. The same title at the same company is counted once, even when it's advertised in several cities (2,619 postings → 2,158 unique jobs).
- Who counts as a backend developer. Classified from the job title and checked against the description; only confident matches are included.
- Checked by hand. We labelled 200 postings manually. On postings the extractor had never seen, 96% of the skills it found were really asked for and it caught 99% of the skills present; 90% of postings counted here really are backend developer roles.
- Salaries. Read from the pay range in the posting (or the job board's salary field), turned into an annual figure. We checked 60 against the posting text: 57 were right, and the parser was fixed for the errors we found. A range counts for a country only in that country's currency.
- Limits. The sample leans towards tech companies and the US (37%). Postings in languages other than English are only partly understood.
Download the data (JSON): every number on this page, with margins of error. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit Coursecrit with a link to this page.
FAQ
What skills do backend developers need?
In 2,158 open postings, the most requested skills are SQL / databases (64%), AWS (49%), Java / Kotlin (backend) (41%), Python (40%) and Message queues / event streaming (39%). After the core stack, the skills that come up most are CI/CD, code review and monitoring & analytics.
Should I learn Java / Kotlin, Python, Go or TypeScript?
Java / Kotlin is asked for in 41% of backend developer postings; Python in 40%, Go in 28% and TypeScript in 18%. Many backend postings accept one of several languages, so depth in one of them, plus SQL (64%), matters more than knowing them all. If you're choosing your first, Java / Kotlin covers the most openings.
Do I need a degree to become a backend developer?
60% of postings don't mention a degree at all, and only 24% require one without accepting equivalent experience. A portfolio of real projects matters more than the diploma for most of these jobs.
How much does a backend developer earn?
In the United States, backend developer postings that publish a pay range advertise a median base salary of $203K (middle half: $178K–$230K), from 624 postings. By level: senior $200K and staff / principal $233K. These are base salaries from companies that publish ranges, which lean towards tech firms and senior roles.
How much experience do backend developer jobs ask for?
58% of postings state a minimum; the median is 5 years. 8% ask for two years or less, and 2% are titled junior or intern.
Do backend developer jobs ask for AI skills?
26% of postings expect you to use AI coding tools such as Copilot, Cursor or Claude Code, and 17% ask for experience building features on top of large language models.
How close are you?
Tick the skills you have and see your gaps, weighted by how often employers ask for them. Five minutes, no sign-up.