There are no perfect list of what you need to be a developer. However, from looking at job posting this seems to be what I consider a list of table stakes in 2025:
- React
- JavaScript/TypeScript
- Node.js
- MV* frameworks - Ruby on Rails, Spring
- Java - every version
- GraphQL
- JSON
- gRPC/Protobuf
- Go
- Docker
- Kubernetes (Plus all the related tools like Helm, Kustomize, and all other CNCF projects)
- Git
- Github / Gitlab
- IAC (Terraform, Pulumi, OpenTofu)
- GitOps (ArgoCD)
- CI/CD (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI)
- Agile/Scrum (DORA metrics)
- RESTful API design and testing
- SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite)
- NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Redis)
- Database performance (just denormalize everything and use indexes everywhere, screw ACID)
- Basic Cloud platform knowledge (AWS/GCP)
- Distributed systems concepts
- Event-driven architecture (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
- Microservices architecture
- OpenTelemetry
- Observability Collectors (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana)
- Developer service tooling (Backstage)
- Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
- Modular monoliths (if you don’t want to take refactoring too seriously)
- Data Lake and Warehouse products (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks)
- Domain-Driven Design
- Linux command line (Bash, Zsh, VIM, Tmux, Neovim)
- Networking basics
- Cloud Networking experience (BGP, VPC peering)
- Knowledge of eBPF
- Security best practices (OWASP, SIEM, SOAR, OpenSSF)
- Basic understanding of AI/ML concepts
- Basic data engineering skills (ETL processes, data pipelines)
- Software system design (singular system)
- Information System Architecture (multiple systems - systems thinking)
- If not already listed, you should be familiar with most of the Apache open-source projects
Good luck in your job search you beautiful unicorn! Don’t forget you need to demonstrate all of these skills in your interviews at scale and in productions!