# Rust debugging survey 2026 results

DevFeed: [Rust debugging survey 2026 results](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/rust-debugging-survey-2026-results-2354.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.rust-lang.org/2026/09/07/rust-debugging-survey-2026-results/>)

Author: Sam Kellam

Published: 2026-09-07T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Rust Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/rust-blog.md>)

Topics: [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/debugging.md>), [Rust](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rust.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ide.md>), [Command-line interface](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cli.md>)

Tags: [2026](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/2026.md>), [command-line](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/command-line.md>), [debugger](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugger.md>), [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugging.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ide.md>), [rust](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rust.md>), [survey](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/survey.md>)

## AI overview

The Rust project reports results from its first Rust Debugging Survey, which received more than 2,300 responses. The article examines who uses debuggers, how Rust developers debug programs, and the debugging challenges they encounter. More than 46% of respondents currently use debuggers, while print debugging and the macro are widely used, followed by debugging inside an IDE and on the command line.

## Source excerpt

One of the biggest challenges Rust developers report in our annual surveys is a subpar debugging experience. So, back in February, we ran our first Rust Debugging Survey, in the hopes of identifying how Rust developers are using debuggers and what problems they are facing when doing so. We received over 2,300 responses, and we'd like to thank everyone who took the time to participate in the survey! In this report, we'll go over some of the results of the survey. If you'd like, you can also check out the complete results of the survey. If you'd like to skip ahead to any particular section, you can do so with this index: Who Uses Debuggers? How Are Debuggers Used? Challenges Debugger Visualizers Closing Remarks Who Uses Debuggers? The first step to making sense of the survey results is understanding who took the survey. We asked respondents to rate their Rust expertise, from "Never used it" to "Advanced". Over 80% reported themselves as "Advanced" or "Intermediate", split roughly evenly between the two: [PNG] [SVG] We also asked respondents if they currently use or have used debuggers in Rust. Over 46% said they currently do, with the remaining responses split between "have in the past" and "never have". That means that over half of respondents do not currently use a debugger for Rust! [PNG] [SVG] Categorized by expertise, the responses reveal that roughly half of "beginners" have never used debuggers in Rust! On the other hand, nearly half of "advanced users" currently do use debuggers in Rust: [PNG] [SVG] For respondents who indicated they had previously used Rust but no longer did, we asked if challenges with debugging support were why they stopped. For nearly 3%, the answer was "yes", with an additional 24% reporting debugging issues as being partially responsible (though mind the small response count; most respondents were active users of Rust): [PNG] [SVG] How Are Debuggers Used? Knowing what debuggers developers are using and how is another important part of un