Python 3 versus C gcc 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. pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 2.39 12,200 567 2.55 64% 37% 5% 1% C gcc 1.75 2,608 452 1.80 67% 0% 2% 33% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 2.67 111,864 1403 4.86 87% 30% 29% 35% C gcc 1.42 152,192 1397 3.40 100% 48% 48% 44% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 16.41 1,772,696 434 17.57 1% 78% 28% 0% C gcc 1.92 551,900 820 2.58 20% 99% 14% 1% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 72.58 183,484 1967 276.33 95% 95% 94% 97% C gcc 4.84 130,192 1506 16.00 98% 83% 63% 87% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 80.82 448,104 589 288.23 91% 88% 91% 86% C gcc 3.59 168,896 809 11.86 77% 74% 98% 82% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 63.63 841,056 1947 127.80 58% 61% 44% 37% C gcc 1.46 2,948 2268 5.84 100% 99% 100% 99% fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 494.58 47,432 950 1,956.79 98% 99% 98% 100% C gcc 8.73 696 910 34.46 100% 95% 100% 100% spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 170.10 49,484 417 670.83 99% 98% 98% 99% C gcc 1.98 988 569 7.89 99% 99% 100% 99% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 891.12 8,416 1196 924.03 1% 53% 47% 2% C gcc 7.30 8 1391 7.41 0% 1% 100% 0% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Python 3 263.87 48,268 688 1,054.07 100% 100% 100% 100% C gcc 1.64 27,024 1135 6.53 99% 99% 100% 100% Python 3 Python 3.8.0 C gcc gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2) 9.3.0 all Python 3 programs & measurements all C gcc programs & measurements