The Python programming language releases new versions yearly, with a feature-locked beta release in the first half of the year and the final release toward the end of the year.

Python 3.11 has just been released, and developers are encouraged to try out this latest version on non-production code, both to verify that it works with your programs and to get an idea of whether your code will benefit from its performance enhancements.

Here’s a rundown of the most significant new features in Python 3.11 and what they mean for Python developers.

Speed improvements

Many individual performance improvements landed in Python 3.11, but the single biggest addition is the specializing adaptive interpreter. Since an object’s type rarely changes, the interpreter now attempts to analyze running code and replace general bytecodes with type-specific ones. For instance, binary operations (add, subtract, etc.) can be replaced with specialized versions for integers, floats,