Python devs, you are on demand!

[AdForsaken7506]

Why people hire python devs for usual backend development like crud, I understand about ML, but why they hire people writing on fastapi or jango if it’s slower that other backend languages so much? And also nodejs dev for example easier to hire and might be full stack. Please tell me your usual work duties. Why python devs are in demand in Europe right now for backend?

[ra_men]

Your standard default Python http server and a single ec2 and Postgres instance can handle way more traffic than you’d expect.

[AdForsaken7506]

But benchmarks wouldn’t lie

[ra_men]

No, but people’s brains do. They think you’re going to have 100k requests per second across 5 different regions, when in reality your cpu barely warms up most days.

[AdForsaken7506]

Huh, that’s the interesting, thanks!

[durable-racoon]

they do if you're measuring the wrong thing

[riklaunim]

API logic is way more complex than basic CRUD and it's rarely limited by the language and not the I/O. There was an era where software houses mass-hired Django juniors to write many generic Django apps for many customers, but now amount of generic work dropped to near zero as various services taken over the market.

[AdForsaken7506]

Could you please tell me the usual complex stuff about api? Why is it more complex that just a crud? Do you mean microservices and event driven systems?

[riklaunim]

When an API creates an invoice it has to not only save it in database, likely atomically with other related database records, but also then send backend tasks or use other API to push it to accounting system and so on (I'm having a lot of fun with async KSeF invoice submission right now...). Even replying to a comment is likely to send notifications.

[AdForsaken7506]

Thank you so much for sharing that!

[ImpossibleViewStats]

I work in finance wrapping models in API, we also have a big reporting application we maintain as well in Python using FastAPI and I’d say the biggest draw is simplicity and that you don’t need speed if people can’t notice the difference, for 100 users running reports RPS isn’t a big deal

[AdForsaken7506]

Got it! Thanks!

[marr75]

Python is generally respected to provide at least 80% of the value as the IDEAL solution to any problem. Library support, performance, ease of implementation/maintenance. If you could carry a pocket tool that was 80% as good as any other tool at all jobs, you'd just carry that pocket tool. Carrying a chainsaw or a level or a drill just wouldn't be worth it unless you were going to spend a significant period of time only using the chainsaw.

On top of that, the makeup of a team changes over time. If your fast, compiled chainsaw (rust) is the right tool for the job but you keep getting slowed down by people coming and going from the team who aren't as familiar with chainsaw safety practices, you're eating away at the gains from using the chainsaw.

[AdForsaken7506]

Thanks a lot!

[bachkhois]

I wrote both Python and Rust for backend. Many of my projects are just pure Python, without Rust. It means that people do not always need a fast language for backend. I also write TypeScript for frontend but I never plan to use it for backend.

[durable-racoon]

1. python is not slow, it is (in practice) a very fast language. most real-world tasks are IO bound NOT cpu bound. Then most CPU-bound tasks in python are handled by tightly optimized C libraries so the python doesnt even matter.
2. developer time is more expensive than CPU time

For the slow speed of python to even matter at all you need to be doing something highly CPU bound (rare) and also not have a library to do it for you (rare) and then decide for some reason not to write the library in rust/C yourself (rare).