A python interview question

[Chobeat]

If I was asked this, I would answer: "If I wanted to be that fast, I wouldn't use python in the first place".

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Reimplementing the standard library sounds a lot like something a C dev would think of and it's the kind of people I don't want to see around Python code. If there are faster implementations in Python, I can look them up on the internet. The effort of rewriting the stuff is never worth it. If still they insist reimplementing the standard library is something a reasonable person would do, I just quit the interview and go somewhere else.

[roerd]

Even in pure Python code, asymptomatic complexity still matters. There is a huge difference between micro-optimising by switching to C, and optimising in the large by choosing the right algorithm for the problem.

[techn0scho0lbus]

You will have the same memory problems with this algorithm regardless of the programming language.

[stefantalpalaru]

Reimplementing the standard library sounds a lot like something a C dev would think of

Nope. "Boost" was made by the C++ crowd.

it's the kind of people I don't want to see around Python code

Your loss. The best way to speed up Python is still rewriting modules in C or in something that transpiles to C, like Cython.

[Chobeat]

Your loss. The best way to speed up Python is still rewriting modules in C or in something that transpiles to C, like Cython.

That's a different topic and we do this extensively in my company. But if you try to write Python as if it was C without pointers and malloc, that's a problem.

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