Performance deep dive

In this approach, we'll find out how to most efficiently calculate the Collatz Conjecture in Python.

The approaches page lists three approaches to this exercise:

1. Using recursion
2. Using the ternary operator
3. Using the if/else

Benchmarks

To benchmark the approaches, we wrote a small benchmark application using the timeit library. These tests were run in windows 11, using Python 3.11.1.

Steps with recursion : 4.1499966755509377e-05
Steps with ternary : 2.1900050342082977e-05
Steps with if/else : 2.0900042727589607e-05

Conclusion

The fastest approach is the one using the if/else statement, followed by the one using the ternary operator/conditional expression. The slowest approach is the one using recursion, probably because Python isn't as optimized for recursion as it is for iteration.