[bbeneschott]

You're correct in that the "top 3%" represents the top 3% of the developers who actually applied to Toptal (about 11,000 from all over the world in the last couple months).

However, it's also important to know that the 3% was not arbitrary. We didn’t start by saying, “wow, we should set the acceptance rate at 3%, because that sounds nice” or we somehow knew that the bottom 97% were bad. 3% (and every value you see on our screening process) is simply the result of a numerator and a denominator (successful_applicants over all_applicants). We designed the process to be the bare minimum criteria for us to be extremely confident that we are admitting someone into the network who will thrive here.

[victorhn]

what are the technologies more in demand that at the same time also would give more chances to get into toptal?

[xsolid]

The technology stack you are using is not going to affect the chance of getting into the network. Once you have gone through the screening process, you're will be matched by a team of engineers to prospective clients based on your tech stack, availability, time zone and other factors as well.

When it comes to technologies being in demand, it really ranges all across the board: from the standard PHP, Ruby, Javascript etc, over more bleeding edge like React, React Native to niche things like OpenCV are all there.

Full disclosure: I am currently employed as Head of Community for EMEA @ Toptal