49,000 developers just crowned Full-Stack the #1 software developer role of 2025. We dig into the Stack Overflow Developer Survey (2025) and turn the data into an actionable career roadmap: what to learn, what to ignore, and how AI actually fits into your workflow.

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Danny Thompson

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Leon Noel

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We break down:

- Why Full-Stack leads (and what skills to stack to stay hireable)

- The SQL vs NoSQL reality (Postgres on top) and how to pivot if you’re Mongo-first

- Languages & frameworks that matter in 2025 (JS/TS, React/Next, .NET/Spring)

- Tools to master: Docker (near-universal) + AWS (still the gap)

- IDE reality: VS Code dominance, Cursor surge, where JetBrains fits

- LLMs in practice: GPT usage, Claude’s rise, and smart model-routing

- Agents, “vibe coding,” and where AI saves real time (tests, data, docs)

- Pay & jobs snapshot + a blunt Q&A: CSS fundamentals vs Tailwind

Chapters

00:00 Cold open — the #1 role reveal

00:36 Why this survey still matters (and its biases)

01:55 Intros + Commit Your Code plug

03:14 Who answered: 49k respondents, pros, age, country

07:03 How devs learn in 2025: docs, AI tools, videos, bootcamps

11:07 The reveal: Full-Stack is #1

12:42 What that means for careers (front-end-only is shrinking)

14:28 Languages: JS/TS, Python, C#/Java — what to prioritize

17:29 Sponsor — Level Up Financial Planning (levelupfinancialplanning.com)

18:34 Databases: SQL dominance (Postgres first) + Mongo in context

20:27 Cloud & dev tools: Docker as default, the AWS gap

21:41 Web frameworks: React/Next, jQuery still huge, .NET & Spring

23:11 IDEs: VS Code, Cursor surge, JetBrains, Vim/Neovim

24:42 LLMs in practice: GPT vs Claude + model routing

29:00 Team tools: GitHub/Jira/Miro + new Git alternatives

30:24 OS choices: Windows vs macOS, WSL split

31:16 Admired vs used: Rust/Elixir, Supabase, reality check

37:02 AI adoption & where it helps most (search, tests, data, docs)

41:41 Accuracy, complex tasks, and human-in-the-loop

44:20 Dealing with “almost right” outputs (mindset shift)

46:40 Agents & “vibe coding” + the Goose demo story

50:32 Jobs, remote, US pay snapshot

51:34 Q&A: CSS fundamentals → then Tailwind

55:12 Outro

49,000 voted. This is the #1 Software Developer Role in 2025!

The Programming Podcast