Who is considered the world's best software engineer?
Asked "Who is considered the world's best software engineer?", ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Google AI Mode named 22 distinct tools across 5 answers on September 8, 2026, and 5 of them in two or more answers, and all 4 engines agreed on Linux, the only tool every engine named.
5 of 22 names confirmed · named in 2 or more of 5 answers · asked September 8, 2026 · 4 engines
There is no universally agreed "world's best software engineer" due to the subjective nature of the title and the varying criteria used to evaluate software engineers. However, some legendary figures are consistently cited as the most influential, including Linus Torvalds, Dennis Ritchie, and Margaret Hamilton. The "best" software engineer can depend on factors such as impact, contributions, influence, coding skill, or leadership.
- 1Linuxnamed in 4 of 5 answers
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- 2Gitnamed in 4 of 5 answers
- 3Cnamed in 4 of 5 answers
- 4Unixnamed in 4 of 5 answers
- 5Pythonnamed in 2 of 5 answers
- 6Linus Torvaldsnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 7Dennis Ritchienamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 8Jeff Deannamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 9John Carmacknamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 10Ken Thompsonnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 11Bjarne Stroustrupnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 12Donald Knuthnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 13Gennady Korotkevichnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 14Margaret Hamiltonnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 15Anders Hejlsbergnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 16Guido van Rossumnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 17Tim Berners-Leenamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 18Barbara Liskovnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 19Javanamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 20COBOLnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 21James Goslingnamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
- 22Grace Hoppernamed in 1 of 5 answersone answer
The full measurement
- The position each of the 4 engines gave all 22 names.
- How many of the 5 answers named each of them.
- 44 sampled observations behind this ranking, and where the engines disagree.
- Fan-out — the query each engine actually searched.
- Every citation, and the sources nobody cited.