Stories from the Web Crawling trenches in Global Interpreter Lock

Why is Python Multithreading Slow and How to Speed It Up

Author: Mohan Ganesan

Date: Mar 17, 2024

Multithreading in Python seems slower due to the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL). Workarounds include multiprocessing for CPU-bound tasks and multithreading for I/O-bound tasks. External C/C++ libraries and newer Python versions also improve parallelism.

Why is multithreading not faster in python?

Author: Mohan Ganesan

Date: Mar 24, 2024

Python's multithreading capabilities are limited by the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), but can still provide performance benefits for I/O-bound tasks. Tips include using multiprocessing for CPU-bound tasks and avoiding shared memory between threads.

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