Note that it is a better idea to focus on optimizations within loops and recursive functions, since those smaller slowdowns add up a lot
- Can I use previously computed values in my loop/recursion? (Dynamic programming)
- If I'm comparing large strings, can I hash them to save memory? (note that built in, generic hash functions are very fast)
- Can I move my loop inside a function instead of calling a function in a loop?
- Can I used unordered versions of what I am using right now? (E.g
unordered set,unordered_map) - Can I avoid types such as floats?
- Can I pass in values by referencei instead of by value? See https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~dhouse/courses/405/papers/optimize.pdf
- Can I use built-ins to speed up my program such as
mapordict.setdefault? - Can I use a set instead of a list for an faster lookup time?
- Note that it is faster to iterate over a list, but faster to check if an element is in a set
- Can I avoid passing unecessary function parameters, especially in recursive functions?
- Can I avoid accessing a method in a loop by referencing the method to a variable in the upper scope? See https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSpeed/PerformanceTips