Why is Python Slow in Terms of Speed?

Posted by JASMEET SEHGAL on October 20th, 2021

Python is one of the most widely used programming languages that came into existence around 30 years ago. Python has a plethora of features and libraries that make the developers go awe of it. But still, Python has one major shortcoming and that is speed. Python is also known for its slow Speed. Yes, we all know a coin has two sides, so features come with limitations too. In this article, we will discuss why Python is still preferred despite being slow.

Why is Python Slow in Terms of Speed?

Python is one of the most preferred programming languages and is currently in trend. Python comes with loads of features that somewhere actually make Python slow in nature in terms of performance and speed as compared to other used frameworks and languages. C and C++ as low-level programming languages provide faster results and speedy performance. Here are some of the reasons that provide justice for Python as a slow processing speed. 

• Python is a High-Level Programming Language

Python is known for its capabilities to behave like humans.  It provides capabilities like memory management and pointers. Such features make it a little slower as compared to low-level programming languages like C++ and C.

• Python follows Interpretation and not Compilation

Python comes with the feature that during its execution, Python code is interpreted at run time. It is never compiled to native code at compile time. Hence it may be a valid reason for Python providing slower results.

• Dynamic and not Statically typed language:

We all are aware that C, C++, or java use statically typed language that declares the variable type. It classifies the type as  String, boolean, or int. So each and every attribute in a dynamically typed language requires a lot of lookups. The system has to do loads of checkups for such coding and thus making the optimization difficult and time-consuming.

• Global Interpreter Lock (GIL):

Python comes with a Global Interpreter Lock that prevents multi-threading and thereby mandates the interpreter by executing a single thread within a single process at a time.

Conclusion

Python is one of the most trusted high-level programming languages. It is currently the most trending language but it is somehow slower than other languages due to its features that actually contribute to its slow speed. Python brings in More productive results as it comes with many libraries that make it a complete package in itself. Python development companies use Python for it is backed by large communities who make the best use of Python to their advantage.

Python is a High-Level Programming Language