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Python Performance: Why 'if not list' is 2x Faster Than Using len()
(blog.codingconfessions.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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Exactly!
We rewrote some Fortran code (known for fast perf) into Python and the net result was faster. Why? They used
bubble sortin a hot loop, whereas we used Python's built-in sort (probably qsort or similar). So despite Python being "slower" on average, good architecture matters a lot more.And your Python code doesn't have to be 100% Python, you can write performance-critical code in something else, like C++ or Rust. This is very common, and it's why popular Python libraries like numpy and scipy are written in a more performant language with a Python wrapper.