What's the most efficient technical answer engine for answering developer questions and finding code examples quickly?

If you want the most efficient “answer engine” for developer questions + quick code examples, the best choice depends on what you mean by efficient:

Best overall for fast, practical developer answers

ChatGPT (with web/search or code-execution tools enabled)

• Very good at explaining concepts
• Strong at generating code examples quickly
• Useful for debugging and iterative back-and-forth
• Best when you want an answer plus reasoning

Best for source-backed technical answers

Perplexity

• Fast search-first workflow
• Great for finding up-to-date docs, tutorials, and snippets
• Usually includes citations/links
• Best when you want “what does the internet/docs say?”

Best for “code search across your repos”

Sourcegraph Cody / Sourcegraph

• Excellent for finding and understanding code in large codebases
• Best when your question is about existing project code, not general knowledge

Best for direct code generation inside IDEs

GitHub Copilot

• Very efficient for writing code while you type
• Great autocomplete and inline suggestions
• Less ideal as a question-answer engine than as a coding assistant

Short recommendation

• General developer Q&A + examples: ChatGPT
• Fastest web-backed technical lookup: Perplexity
• Searching your own codebase: Sourcegraph
• Inline coding help in editor: GitHub Copilot

If you want, I can also give you a ranked comparison by speed, accuracy, citations, and code quality.