Perl versus Python 3 fastest programs Always look at the source code. These are only the fastest programs. Look at the other programs. They may seem more-like a fair comparison to you. spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 39.52 12,216 555 154.07 97% 98% 97% 98% Python 3 170.10 49,484 417 670.83 99% 98% 98% 99% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 10.60 1,494,988 287 10.72 37% 0% 0% 63% Python 3 16.41 1,772,696 434 17.57 1% 78% 28% 0% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 729.64 6,528 1429 743.07 29% 47% 2% 24% Python 3 891.12 8,416 1196 924.03 1% 53% 47% 2% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 61.27 1,069,048 476 191.99 82% 93% 64% 74% Python 3 72.58 183,484 1967 276.33 95% 95% 94% 97% fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 569.32 12,088 570 2,231.43 97% 100% 97% 98% Python 3 494.58 47,432 950 1,956.79 98% 99% 98% 100% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 90.31 55,080 871 90.89 100% 0% 0% 0% Python 3 63.63 841,056 1947 127.80 58% 61% 44% 37% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 3.61 8,548 261 3.69 0% 1% 1% 100% Python 3 2.39 12,200 567 2.55 64% 37% 5% 1% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 129.89 2,519,152 761 457.58 96% 84% 88% 84% Python 3 80.82 448,104 589 288.23 91% 88% 91% 86% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 721.25 44,280 586 2,884.18 100% 100% 100% 100% Python 3 263.87 48,268 688 1,054.07 100% 100% 100% 100% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Perl 16.03 156,916 820 46.37 79% 77% 87% 46% Python 3 2.67 111,864 1403 4.86 87% 30% 29% 35% Perl This is perl 5, version 30, subversion 0 (v5.30.0) built for x86_64-linux-thread-multi Python 3 Python 3.8.0 all Perl programs & measurements all Python 3 programs & measurements