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{{Short description|Question-and-answer website for computer programmers}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox website
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}}</ref> It was created to be a more open alternative to earlier question and answer websites such as [[Experts-Exchange]]. Stack Overflow was sold to [[Prosus]], a Netherlands-based consumer internet conglomerate, on 2 June 2021 for $1.8 billion.<ref>{{cite news|last=Dummett|first=Ben|date=2 June 2021|title=Stack Overflow Sold to Tech Giant Prosus for $1.8 Billion|publisher=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400|access-date=2 June 2021|archive-date=29 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029175938/https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400|url-status=live}}</ref>
The website serves as a platform for users to ask and answer questions, and, through membership and active participation, to vote questions and answers up or down similar to [[Reddit]] and edit questions and answers in a fashion similar to a [[wiki]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/the-gamification.html | work = Coding Horror Blog | author = Jeff Atwood | date = 2008-09-21 | title = The Gamification | access-date = 2011-01-24 | archive-date = 1 February 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140201063225/http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/the-gamification.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Users of Stack Overflow can earn [[Reputation system|reputation points]] and "badges"; for example, a person is awarded 10 reputation points for receiving an "up" vote on a question or an answer to a question,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/11/13/were-rewarding-the-question-askers/|title=Were Rewarding the Question Askers|date=13 November 2019 |access-date=20 November 2019|archive-date=16 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116115224/https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/11/13/were-rewarding-the-question-askers/|url-status=live}}</ref> and can receive badges for their valued contributions,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation | work = Stack Overflow | title = What is reputation? How do I earn (and lose) it? | access-date = 14 August 2010 | archive-date = 9 June 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130609062938/http://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation | url-status = live }}</ref> which represents a [[gamification]] of the traditional Q&A website. Users unlock new privileges with an increase in reputation like the ability to vote, comment, and even edit other people's posts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges|title=List of privileges|access-date=22 November 2017|archive-date=14 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214143308/https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{As of|2025|06}} Stack Overflow has over 29 million registered users and has received over 24 million questions and 36 million answers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=All Sites – Stack Exchange|url=https://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#questions|access-date=2025-06-11|website=stackexchange.com|archive-date=
== History ==
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=== Security breach ===
In early May 2019, an update was deployed to Stack Overflow's development version. It contained a bug which allowed an attacker to grant themselves privileges in accessing the production version of the site. Stack Overflow published on their blog that approximately 184 public network users were affected by this breach, which "could have returned IP address, names, or emails".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/stack-overflow-says-hackers-breached-production-systems/|title=Stack Overflow says hackers breached production systems|last=Cimpanu|first=Catalin|website=ZDNet|language=en|access-date=2019-06-22|archive-date=7 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207032048/https://www.zdnet.com/article/stack-overflow-says-hackers-breached-production-systems/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ferguson |first=Mary |date=2019-05-17 |title=Update to Security Incident [May 17, 2019] |url=https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/05/17/update-to-security-incident-may-17-2019/ |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=Stack Overflow Blog |language=en-US |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519214227/https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/05/17/update-to-security-incident-may-17-2019/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== 2023 controversy over AI-generated content and moderation strike ===
{{excerpt|Stack Exchange|June - August 2023 moderation strike}}
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Stack Overflow won the [[2020 Webby Award|2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Community]] in the category Web.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kastrenakes|first1=Jacob|date=20 May 2020|title=Here are all the winners of the 2020 Webby Awards|url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21263445/2020-webby-awards-winners-lil-nas-x-nasa-jon-krasinski|access-date=22 May 2020|website=The Verge|language=en|archive-date=21 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521205535/https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21263445/2020-webby-awards-winners-lil-nas-x-nasa-jon-krasinski|url-status=live}}</ref>
The site's culture has been criticized in the past for being unfriendly by one research paper, especially in the context of gender differences in participation and beginners learning computer science.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brooke |first1=Siân |title="Condescending, Rude, Assholes": Framing gender and hostility on Stack Overflow. |url=http://aclanthology.lst.uni-saarland.de/W19-3519.pdf |year=2019 |access-date=21 July 2021 |archive-date=21 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721142719/http://aclanthology.lst.uni-saarland.de/W19-3519.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2023 study by another researcher concluded that the website's new users were met with significant difficulties in obtaining help from other users in posts started by the former; an analysis from a sample of 968 posts showed that 49% experienced hurdles such as their questions being closed, receiving no response, or receiving no mention as to why their posts were being negatively scored.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Kaindl|editor-first1=Hermann|editor-last2=Mannion|editor-first2=Mike|editor-last3= Maciaszek|editor-first3=Leszek A.| date = 7 July 2023| title = Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering: 17th International Conference, ENASE 2022, Virtual Event, April 25–26, 2022, Revised Selected Papers| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=V1LKEAAAQBAJ| publisher = Springer Nature Switzerland|
A study from the [[University of Maryland]] found that Android developers that used only Stack Overflow as their programming resource tended to write less secure code than those who used only the official Android developer documentation from Google, while developers using only the official Android documentation tended to write significantly less functional code than those who used only Stack Overflow.<ref>Y. Acar, M. Backes, S. Fahl, D. Kim, M. L. Mazurek and C. Stransky, "[https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2017/cmsc818O/papers/get-where-look.pdf You Get Where You're Looking for: The Impact of Information Sources on Code Security] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214111923/https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2017/cmsc818O/papers/get-where-look.pdf |date=14 February 2021 }}," ''2016 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)'', San Jose, CA, 2016, pp. 289–305. doi: 10.1109/SP.2016.25</ref>
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