Java isn't back, it simply never went away - it's the modern Cobol. It's a good environment for backend development. Free if you need it, support if you want, no vendor lock-in, no platform lock-in, a vibrant open-source community - there's a lot to like about this old dinosaur!
This is the language usage from latest Google Code Jam stats: <a href="http://www.go-hero.net/jam/14/round/0" rel="nofollow">http://www.go-hero.net/jam/14/round/0</a><p>Some observations:
* C++ is the king. More people use it than next two (Java+Python combined)<p>* Although there were 20% more Java coders than Python coders, but 20% more Python coders qualified than Java coders.
JVM languages would probably top such lists in coming years.<p>Think JRuby, Jython, Clojure,Javascript...etc and of course Java.<p>For anyone interested in trying these out, checkout HiveMind (crudzilla.com), I am the developer.<p>Sample screencast:
<a href="http://crudzilla.com/assets/img/info-graphics/lang-demo.gif" rel="nofollow">http://crudzilla.com/assets/img/info-graphics/lang-demo.gif</a>
The name of this article is definitely leading without context. For a competition that is focused on building a race car simulator, certain languages are going to be a better choice. If the competition was to build a web app, I'm pretty sure that C/C++ would not be high on that list, and Java would be ranked lower.