TECH BASICS
Tech Stack
The specific set of tools and languages a team uses to build their product.
The simple version
A tech stack is the specific combination of programming languages, frameworks, and tools a company uses to build and run its product — kind of like the ingredients and equipment behind a dish, rather than the dish itself.
For example
You might hear a company describe itself as "built on React and Python" — meaning they use React (a tool for building what users see) on the front end, and Python (a programming language) to power the backend behind the scenes.
Go deeper
There's no single "correct" stack — teams choose based on what their engineers know, what the product needs, and what's proven to scale. Job listings often mention a stack directly (e.g. "experience with React, Node, and AWS") because it signals exactly what skills a team is hiring for.
Why it matters
If you're exploring engineering roles, a company's stack is one of the fastest ways to tell whether your skills (or the ones you're learning) actually match what a team needs day to day.