What is Python?
Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language created by Guido van Rossum and first released on February 20, 1991. It supports multiple programming paradigms including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming. Its syntax enforces readability through significant whitespace, and its standard library follows a “batteries included” philosophy that covers everything from file I/O to web servers.
Python spans web development, data science, machine learning, scientific computing, and automation. Major organizations including Google, Instagram, Spotify, and NASA use it heavily, and it has become a standard choice for teaching programming in universities.
How CPython works
CPython is Python’s reference implementation, written in C and Python. When people say “Python,” they almost always mean CPython. It includes the interpreter that executes code and a standard library of built-in modules.
CPython uses a Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) that allows only one thread to execute Python bytecode at a time, which simplifies the interpreter’s memory management but limits thread-level parallelism. A free-threaded build that removes the GIL shipped as officially supported in Python 3.14.
CPython follows an annual release cycle with a new minor version each October. Each version receives two years of full support and three additional years of security-only fixes.
CPython gained an experimental JIT compiler in Python 3.13, using a copy-and-patch technique to translate hot bytecode paths into machine code at runtime. It is off by default.
Alternative implementations exist. PyPy offers a JIT-compiled interpreter and remains actively developed. IronPython targets .NET but lags behind CPython. Jython targeted the JVM but remains stuck on Python 2.7.
How Python is organized
Python is more than a language and interpreter. It is a federation of independent organizations and volunteer groups:
- The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is a non-profit that holds Python’s intellectual property, funds infrastructure, and organizes PyCon US
- The Steering Council is five core developers elected annually to make final technical decisions
- The core developers maintain CPython (roughly 100 people, most of them unpaid volunteers)
- PyPI is the official package repository, hosted by the PSF
- The PyPA is a working group that maintains packaging tools like pip and setuptools
- The PEP process is how changes to the language and its standards are proposed and decided
These groups overlap in membership but operate independently. No single entity controls the whole stack. This decentralized structure explains a lot about why Python’s packaging ecosystem works the way it does.
Where the Python community gathers
Python’s global community includes local user groups, Discourse forums, conferences (PyCon events on every continent except Antarctica), the Python Discord, and r/Python.
Learn More
- What is a Python interpreter? explains what runs your code and how tools find the right Python version
- What is the GIL? covers how the lock works, why it exists, and what free-threaded Python changes
- Try free-threaded Python with uv walks through enabling the GIL-free build
- Why doesn’t Python just fix packaging? maps the organizations above to the tools they do (and don’t) control
- Create your first Python project guides new users through building and running a project with uv
- Python documentation