Since 2020, Retool has conducted the State of Internal Tools survey to explore how companies utilize custom internal tools, focusing on developers' time allocation, build processes, and impact measurement. The latest survey, with over 2,000 respondents, reveals that 33% of developers' time is dedicated to creating internal tools, with a notable increase in tools being built for operations teams, now at 55.4%. Databases and internal APIs, particularly Postgres, are more commonly used as data sources than third-party APIs, though Slack, GitHub, and Stripe remain popular. The report also highlights a link between company size and the use of SQL and Python, and raises concerns about inadequate security measures in internal tools. Additionally, a tutorial on understanding the dependency array in React's useEffect() hook is provided to help developers navigate its complexities.