Top 18 Software Developers in India
Explore the leading software developers in India, ranked for their expertise and excellence. Find the best talent to turn your tech ideas into reality. ↓
India’s tech scene is thriving with top software engineers leading in open source, startups, competitive programming and advanced company projects.
From AI to blockchain, these best developers have made recent, impactful contributions – whether through coding at top firms, founding startups, winning global contests or shaping tech communities.
- Tanmai Gopal
- Rushabh Mehta
- Abhinav Asthana
- Ritesh Arora
- Jaynti Kanani
- Gaurav Sen
- Kunal Kushwaha
- Hitesh Choudhary
- Pawan Kumar
- Santosh Yadav
- Arjun Arul
- Utkarsh Gupta
- Priyansh Agarwal
- Anup Kumar Panwar
- Viral B. Shah
- Sudalai Rajkumar
- Samyak Jain
- Sridhar Vembu
Now, let’s delve deeper into their backgrounds and accomplishments, along with links to their online profiles:
Tanmai Gopal
Realtime Data Connectivity for AI
Tanmai is the co-founder and CEO of Hasura, the open-source GraphQL engine company.
A true full-stack polyglot, he has built developer tools spanning React, Node.js, Python, Haskell and more. Tanmai previously ran a cloud consulting firm and even taught India’s largest programming MOOC (IMAD with over 250,000 students).
Under his leadership, Hasura’s GraphQL platform has simplified backend development for countless developers, and he remains an active contributor to its codebase and community.
- LinkedIn: Tanmai Gopal
- X (Twitter): @tanmaigo
- GitHub: coco98
Rushabh Mehta
Rushabh is the founder and CEO of Frappe Technologies, known for the popular open-source ERP system ERPNext.
He built ERPNext from scratch and grew it into the world’s largest open-source ERP used by businesses globally. A passionate Python and JavaScript coder, Rushabh leads by example – actively writing code and engaging with the developer community. He also co-founded FOSS United to support India’s open-source ecosystem, reflecting his belief in community-driven tech innovation.
Under Rushabh’s stewardship, ERPNext has become a compelling free alternative to proprietary ERPs, lowering technology barriers for enterprises.
- LinkedIn: Rushabh Mehta
- X (Twitter): @rushabh_mehta
- GitHub: rmehta
Abhinav Asthana
Abhinav is the co-founder and CEO of Postman, the ubiquitous API development platform used by over 30 million developers.
A lifelong coder who built his first product (BITS360) while still in college, he created Postman in 2012 as a side-project to solve API testing frustrations. The simple Chrome extension quickly grew into a collaboration platform that has transformed API workflows globally.
Under Abhinav’s leadership, Postman has scaled into a SaaS unicorn while remaining beloved by developers for its ease of use. He is a hands-on engineer turned entrepreneur who credits his “developer-first” approach for Postman’s success, and he continues to advocate for better developer experiences in software tooling
- LinkedIn: Abhinav Asthana
- X (Twitter): @a85
- GitHub: Abhinav Asthana
Ritesh Arora
Ritesh is the co-founder and CEO of BrowserStack, the world’s leading cross-browser testing platform.
An IIT Bombay alumnus and serial entrepreneur, he built BrowserStack in 2011 to solve developers’ pain of testing on myriad browsers and devices. Starting as a bootstrapped two-person startup, BrowserStack under Ritesh’s code and vision grew to serve 50,000+ global customers including tech giants. He remains deeply technical, ensuring the platform delivers robust, secure, and high-performance infrastructure for testing at scale.
Ritesh’s journey from coding the first version of BrowserStack to scaling a $4B+ company inspires many in India’s startup ecosystem for its focus on product excellence and developer needs.
- LinkedIn: Ritesh Arora
- X (Twitter): @ritesharora
Jaynti Kanani
Jaynti (JD) is a co-founder of Polygon (previously Matic Network), a Layer-2 scaling solution that has become integral to the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem.
A blockchain engineer by background, he helped design Polygon’s architecture to make transactions faster and fees lower on Ethereum. Under his technical leadership, Polygon grew to handle millions of daily transactions and attracted major decentralized apps. Jaynti’s hands-on coding in Polygon’s early days – implementing Plasma chains and a PoS network – was crucial to its success.
In 2023, after six years, he stepped back from daily operations to pursue new ventures, but he remains a respected figure in Web3. His journey from a software engineer in Ahmedabad to co-founding one of the top blockchain networks showcases India’s emerging strength in crypto development.
- LinkedIn: Jaynti Kanani
- X (Twitter): @jdkanani
- GitHub: jdkanani
Gaurav Sen
Gaurav is a software engineer turned educator widely known for demystifying System Design for a generation of Indian developers.
An IIT alumnus and former Uber/Microsoft engineer, he started a YouTube channel around 2017 focusing on system architecture and complex algorithms. His channel (with over 650k subscribers) has made formerly esoteric concepts accessible, helping many prepare for engineering interviews. Gaurav also founded InterviewReady, creating structured courses on system design.
He remains technically sharp through hands-on projects and collaborations. By openly discussing how to design scalable systems (like scalable web services, databases, etc.) in simple terms, Gaurav has influenced hiring practices and interview prep across India. He continues to be a top content creator in the software engineering space, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world applied design.
- LinkedIn: Gaurav Sen
- YouTube: Gaurav Sen
- Website: interviewready.io
Kunal Kushwaha
Kunal is a Developer Relations leader and open-source educator who has become a young icon in India’s tech community.
He founded Community Classroom, a free initiative that has trained thousands of students in DevOps, cloud and programming. Kunal is also a CNCF Ambassador helping students dive into open-source cloud projects, and was recognized by Twilio’s Developer Searchlight as a top mentor in 2022.
Currently Field CTO at Civo, he creates content simplifying technologies like Kubernetes and ML for beginners. Kunal’s passion for inclusivity and “just getting started” attitude has lowered entry barriers for countless aspiring developers. He embodies the new wave of developer influencers who not only code but also uplift communities through content, conferences and online bootcamps.
- LinkedIn: Kunal Kushwaha
- X (Twitter): @kunalstwt
- GitHub: kunal-kushwaha
- Website/Blog: techwithkunal.com
Hitesh Choudhary
Hitesh is a prominent programming educator and influencer, known for his engaging video courses that have made coding accessible to millions.
He founded LearnCodeOnline (LCO), an ed-tech platform offering affordable programming courses, which was later acquired by iNeuron in 2022. On YouTube, Hitesh’s channels (nearly 1 million subscribers combined) cover everything from web development to machine learning in an easy-to-digest style. A self-taught developer turned teacher, he served as CTO at iNeuron after the acquisition, and more recently as a director at PhysicsWallah post-merger.
Hitesh’s mantra of practical, project-based learning has empowered students and professionals to upskill for the tech industry. Despite transitioning into leadership roles, he continues to create content and write code for demo projects, reflecting his core passion for teaching technology.
- LinkedIn: Hitesh Choudhary
- X (Twitter): @hiteshchoudhary
- YouTube: hiteshitube
- Website/Blog: hiteshchoudhary.com
Pawan Kumar
Whenever I look back on my journey with Flutter, I can’t help but marvel at how it changed my life.
Pawan is India’s first Google Developer Expert (GDE) in Flutter (Google’s UI toolkit) and a leading figure in the mobile dev community.
He founded CodePur, a popular YouTube channel (~140k subscribers) and blog where he shares Flutter tutorials, tips, and open-source libraries. Pawan created VelocityX, a Flutter UI framework used by developers globally. He also serves as a tech lead in industry (recently at Pocket FM), applying his expertise to real-world products. As a GDE for Flutter, Firebase, and Dart, he speaks at international conferences and mentors budding app developers.
Pawan’s contributions have been pivotal in popularizing Flutter in India – inspiring many to build native mobile apps with Dart. His energetic content and community work earned him recognition as one of the foremost mobile developers in the country.
- LinkedIn: Pawan Kumar
- X (Twitter): @imthepk
- YouTube: Pawan Kumar
- GitHub: iampawan
Santosh Yadav
Santosh is an open-source champion in India’s web development scene, best known for his contributions to the Angular ecosystem.
He is a Google Developer Expert for Angular, a GitHub Star, and a Microsoft MVP – a rare combination. By day Santosh works as a senior engineer (at Celonis), and by night he authors libraries like ngx-builders and helps maintain projects in the Angular and Nx (monorepo) communities. He also co-founded “This is Learning”, an initiative to upskill developers, and runs a weekly tech talk show to share knowledge. Santosh’s journey from self-taught programmer to internationally recognized community leader is inspiring – he often speaks about overcoming challenges and the importance of consistency.
Through code contributions, blog posts, and mentoring, Santosh has significantly shaped Angular’s developer community in India and beyond.
- LinkedIn: Santosh Yadav
- X (Twitter): @SantoshYadavDev
- GitHub: santoshyadavdev
- Website/Blog: santoshyadav.dev
Arjun Arul
Arjun is a competitive programming veteran who now leads initiatives at CodeChef (one of India’s largest coding platforms).
A Chennai Mathematical Institute alumnus, he twice earned Honorable Mention at the ACM ICPC World Finals (2012 and 2013) – a rare achievement for an Indian team at the time. After grad school, Arjun turned his algorithmic expertise to teaching and developing programming contests. He has coached Indian IOI teams and was heavily involved in CodeChef’s programming camps and problem setting.
Until recently a Co-Director at CodeChef, he ensured the platform’s contests ran smoothly and fostered new talent. Arjun remains an active problem curator and often shares insights on algorithms. His transition from world-class contestant to mentor/organizer has been invaluable in strengthening India’s programming contest ecosystem.
- LinkedIn: Arjun Arul
- X (Twitter): @arjunarul
Utkarsh Gupta
Utkarsh is one of India’s highest-rated competitive programmers in recent years.
Known by the handle “demoralizer” on Codeforces, he became an International Grandmaster with a peak rating above 2500. He consistently ranked as the top Indian coder on Codeforces, a fact recognized by peers.
Utkarsh also excelled in Google’s coding contests, twice finishing as India rank 2 in Google Kick Start competitions and qualifying for Code Jam finals. After his competitive career, he joined Google as a software engineer and later took on a leadership role at Scaler (InterviewBit) helping train the next generation of coders.
Utkarsh’s competitive achievements (including multiple national wins and ICPC regional medals) and his community contributions (through YouTube tutorials and mentorship) have cemented his reputation as a “coder’s coder” in India.
- LinkedIn: Utkarsh Gupta
- X (Twitter): @utkarshg_
- YouTube: Utkarsh Gupta
Priyansh Agarwal
Priyansh is a competitive programming prodigy who achieved feats few others in India have.
He was an ICPC World Finalist during his undergrad and notably secured an All-India Rank 1 in Google Kick Start. Priyansh is also a 6★ rated coder on CodeChef and reached Master level on Codeforces. His knack for algorithms landed him a job at Google straight out of IIIT-Delhi, where he currently works as a software engineer.
Outside work, Priyansh runs “TLE Eliminators”, a mentoring group for competitive programming, and shares coding problem explanations on YouTube. Despite his young age, he has inspired many college students by proving that with dedication, one can break into the global top ranks from India. Priyansh continues to give back by tutoring ICPC teams and creating educational content alongside his professional engineering work.
- LinkedIn: Priyansh Agarwal
- X (Twitter): @Priyansh_31Dec
- YouTube: @PriyanshAgarwal
Anup Kumar Panwar
Anup is the creator and lead maintainer of The Algorithms, one of the most starred open-source repositories on GitHub (with over 200k combined stars). This project is a massive collection of data structure and algorithm implementations in over 30 languages – a go-to resource for students worldwide.
He’s passionate about free education; the project’s easy-to-read code and documentation reflect that ethos. Anup has interned with Google Summer of Code and worked as a software engineer at startups (currently at Zepto). Through The Algorithms, he demonstrated how a student from India can build a project that rivals the world’s best in popularity and impact. He remains actively involved in reviewing contributions and expanding the project’s scope (recently into machine learning algorithms as well).
- LinkedIn: Anup Kumar Panwar
- X (Twitter): @AnupKumarPanwar
- GitHub: AnupKumarPanwar
Viral B. Shah
Viral is an Indian computer scientist best known as a co-creator of the Julia programming language.
Julia, designed for high-performance numerical computing, has gained worldwide acclaim in AI, data science, and scientific research. Uniquely, Viral chose to build Julia largely from Bengaluru, bucking the trend of moving to Silicon Valley.
He co-founded Julia Computing (now JuliaHub) to grow the ecosystem and currently serves as its CEO. Prior to Julia, Viral was instrumental in India’s Aadhaar ID project, co-authoring a book “Rebooting India” on that experience. With Julia, he and his co-founders won the Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software in 2019 for its design. Viral’s journey highlights how Indian developers are now at the forefront of language and compiler innovation. He continues to split his time between coding (he’s active on Julia’s GitHub) and steering JuliaHub to bring Julia’s capabilities to industry.
- LinkedIn: Viral B. Shah
- X (Twitter): @Viral_B_Shah
- Wikipedia: Viral_B._Shah
Sudalai Rajkumar
Sudalai, known as SRK in data science circles, is one of the world’s few quadruple Kaggle Grandmasters – achieving Grandmaster status in Kaggle competitions, datasets, notebooks, and discussions.
Hailing from Chennai, he has topped global machine learning contests on Kaggle (winning multiple gold medals) and was ranked #1 in the world on Kaggle for a period. SRK has worked at eminent product companies like Freshworks and H2O.ai, and currently leads AI/ML at a fintech startup. He is revered for his pragmatic approach to data science, often sharing solution write-ups and mentoring aspirants.
Despite reaching the pinnacle (only ~5 people globally have 4x GM titles), Sudalai remains very down-to-earth and actively engages in local AI meetups and conferences. His expertise spans NLP, computer vision, and autoML, and he often advises AI hackathons and startups. SRK’s success underscores India’s growing strength in data science competitions on the world stage.
- LinkedIn: Sudalai Rajkumar (SRK)
- X (Twitter): @sudalairajkumar
- Kaggle Profile: SRK – Kaggle Grandmaster
Samyak Jain
Samyak is the co-founder and CTO of Instadapp, a leading platform in Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
In 2018, barely out of his teens, Samyak (along with his brother) built Instadapp’s prototype during a hackathon – and won. They dropped out of college to turn it into a company, which grew into the 5th largest DeFi protocol globally with over $10 billion in assets at its peak.
As a self-taught developer, Samyak wrote crucial smart contracts and integration code that allowed users to seamlessly manage crypto loans and yield farming across protocols. Instadapp’s success landed the Jain brothers on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia.
Samyak continues to innovate in the Web3 space, recently working on new decentralized infrastructure (like Morphic). His story as a small-town teen from Kota becoming a blockchain millionaire by 25 through open-source contributions epitomizes the opportunity for India’s young developers in the crypto revolution.
- LinkedIn: Samyak Jain
- X (Twitter): @smykjain
- GitHub: KaymasJain
Sridhar Vembu
Sridhar is the co-founder and CEO of Zoho Corp, and a rare example of a tech CEO who still actively codes.
A graduate of Princeton, he returned to India in the 1990s and built Zoho (originally AdventNet) into a global SaaS powerhouse with a suite of 50+ enterprise apps (CRM, office tools, etc.), all developed in-house. Despite being a self-made billionaire, Sridhar remains deeply technical – often writing software design docs and coding for new product ideas. He is a strong proponent of product R&D from India’s rural areas, having moved to a village and set up Zoho’s offices there. Sridhar’s belief in long-term engineering over short-term growth has led Zoho to 100 million+ users worldwide.
He has also funded initiatives like Zoho Schools of Learning (a free alternative to college to train developers). In an era of rapid AI-driven changes, Sridhar’s voice is influential – he opines that while AI can generate code, true innovation comes from human insight. Under his leadership, Zoho proves that Indian companies can build world-class software while rooted in indigenous talent and philosophies.
- X (Twitter): @svembu
- Blog: sridhar-vembu
Wrap Up
These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals in India available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.
Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. If you intend to share or make use of it in any way, we kindly ask that you include a backlink to the original source – EchoGlobal.
Tags: coders, developers, developers India, engineers, experts
Lou Reverchuk IT Entrepreneur