

If asked to guess which U.S. state is home to the best software developers, most people would probably assume the answer is California, home of Silicon Valley, the nation’s largest tech hub where many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations are based.
But according to a new analysis from HackerRank, a website that offers tests on coding skills, the top state for developer talent is in fact Washington, followed closely by Wyoming of all states. California could only manage third place.
HackerRank said the states of Washington and Wyoming dominate the U.S. developer scene when it comes to algorithms, which is the most popular domain on its platform.
“It’s certainly notable that Washington outranks California. Silicon Valley gets a lot of the hype but places like Seattle are also home to some of the most innovative and influential companies in the tech industry,” said HackerRank Chief Executive Officer Vivek Ravisankar.
In its study, HackerRank looked at developer challenges across eight domains in total, including algorithms, functional programming, math, data structures, Ruby, C++, Python and Java. The company said it based its analysis on data from more than 450,000 developers’ tests carried out in 2015 and 2016.
HackerRank ranked all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia based on the average scores of developers across all eight domains:
The company also ranked the top U.S. states for each technology domain:
Overall, HackerRank said, developer communities were growing all over the country. It notes that in the past, the highest concentrations of developers didn’t move far from California’s tech hubs. However, that’s changing rapidly, with Hawaii, Colorado, Virginia and Nevada showing the fastest growth in terms of developer activity on its platform.
“Today, as the demand for developers goes beyond technology and as there is more opportunity to work remotely, there’s a more distributed workforce of skilled developers across the nation, from the Rust Belt to the East Coast,” Ravisankar said.
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