Poland is ranked high when it comes to the countries from which the top developers in the world come. Polish best software engineers and web developers are becoming increasingly well-known and sought after in the professional programming field. They not only specialize in various programming languages, but are also becoming more and more successful at international IT competitions and Olympiads, and hold top spots in rankings of specialists compiled by services such as Hackerrank.
The reputation of Polish software engineers is like a magnet for foreign contractors working on web development. Polish programmers and developers excel in programming languages such as Java or Python. Fluency in the most widely used foreign languages in the world influences the lack of language barriers and facilitates communication with developers based worldwide. Polish software companies are also known for their reliability in solving problems, customers can always count on their support and expert advice.
The secret of the success of the skills of our country’s specialists undoubtedly lies in education. Technical colleges in Poland enjoy an unflagging, if not increasing, interest from high school graduates. The emphasis on math and science plays a key role in preparing future IT students. IT employers like Microsoft entrust Polish people with software development work.
IOI 2023 – Poles among best programmers in the world
The IT industry in Poland is developing rapidly. Technical universities, IT companies and various competitions encourage young talents develop their knowledge and skills and work on software projects. One of them is the IOI – International Olympiad in Informatics. In 2023 it was held in Hungary. It is an algorithm and programming competition for high school students first held in 1989. From 28.08 to 4.09 2023, four Poles competed among 354 students from 89 countries. The national team is selected each year during the national IT Olympiad.
Polish students won four medals at IOI 2023 – one gold and silver medal and two bronze medals. The gold medal was awarded to Antoni Buraczewski, a student of the 3rd Adam Mickiewicz High School in Wroclaw. He was third in the overall classification. The silver medal went to Adam Gąsienica-Samek from the 14th Stanislaw Staszic High School in Warsaw. Bronze medals were given to Rafał Mańczyk of the 14th Belgian Polish Community High School in Wroclaw and Olaf Targowski of the 3rd Polish Naval High School in Gdynia. The winners are guaranteed success in IT recruitment and soon may shape the future of digital world.
A total of 30 gold medals, 58 silver and 90 bronze medals were awarded. It is worth mentioning that Polish best developers were ranked 7th alongside representatives of the world’s IT powers – China, the United States, Japan, Russia, Taiwan and Korea. No other European country was in the top 10.
IOI 2024 – Poles among the top 10 software developers again!
The 36th IOI took place in Alexandria, Egypt, from September 1 to 8. 362 students representing 91 countries took part in it. The four-member Polish team won two gold and two silver medals. Adam Gąsienica-Samek, a student from Warsaw, won second place and a gold medal this time. Better than him was only the representative of China. Rafal Manczyk, from the 14th Belgian Polish Community High School in Wroclaw, also won a gold medal (ranked 19th). Two other Polish representatives, Kajetan Ramsza and Jan Gwiazda, both from the 14th Stanislaw Staszic High School in Warsaw, won silver medals, placed just behind the gold podium as 32nd and 34th.
In the unofficial medal classification, Poles are the third top software developers in the world following China and the USA. At this point it is worth mentioning that the father of our gold medalist, Andrzej Gąsienica-Samek, also participated in the IOI from 1996 to 1999 and won four medals then – three gold and one silver.
Poles are successful software industry developers, lots of popular software is on the list of the top 10. Our talents have already triumphed twice in IOI. In 2006 Filip Wolski and a year later, Tomasz Kulczynski won.
A few words about best computer programmers of all time
Who are the 10 top software developers? Dennis Ritchie – famous for the development of Unix operating system together with Ken Thompson, Brian Kernighan – Canadian computer scientist who worked on the first book on the C programming language with Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup – Danish computer scientist, developer of the C ++ language, James Gosling – father of the Java language, Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds – Linux Kernel creator, Tim Berners-Lee – British computer scientist, creator of the World Wide Web, or Dutch programmer Guido Van Rossum – creator of the Python programming language – are top software developers in the world. Women were and are a minority in the male-dominated IT world, but to name a few – top 1 Ada Lovelace – British first programmer ever, Grace Hopper – American computer scientist, Katherine Johnson – American computer scientist and mathematician…. these are just a few outstanding women who have played a key role in the world of technology. Polish women computer scientists – Jowita Kocewicz – probably the first computer programmer in Poland to take up programming in the 1960s, she worked on the SAKO programming language for the first Polish computer; Elżbieta Płóciennik – a pioneer of the Internet, whose clients were global companies, including IBM; Elżbieta Jezierska-Ziemkiewicz – co-inventor of the K-202 minicomputer and the Mera 400 microcomputer.
Leon Lukaszewicz – a pioneer of computer science in Poland, designer of the XYZ computer and creator of the EOL programming language; Jack Tramiel or actually Idek Trzmiel, a Pole of Jewish descent, owner of Commodore Business Machines, manufacturer of the Commodore 64, the most popular home computer in history; and finally Tomasz Czajka – programmer, winner of IT competitions, world champion in team programming, employee of SpaceX and Google – are a few of the most influential Poles who can be described as the best programmers in the world.
Summing up, Polish professionals are well-known software developers, valued for accuracy, reliability and best practices. The number of women in the Polish IT market is growing steadily. The IT Community Survey 2024 report shows that women now account for about 16% of Polish IT. IT specialists from Poland are involved in programming, artificial intelligence, software development projects and mobile apps development for contractors worldwide.
Adam Łyko, CEO
With 18 years of experience in recruiting IT professionals and helping clients optimize their recruitment budgets, we provide engaging consultancy services and valuable knowledge sharing. If you have more questions, we’re here to support you. Curious about the availability of certain coding skills in selected geography? Schedule a meeting. Together, we’ll navigate the market challenges outlined in this article and strategize your response.