Multi-Stage Docker Builds Cut Python App Image Size from 1.2GB to 85MB

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A software team discovered their Docker image for a simple Python web app had ballooned to 1.2GB, causing CI pipeline runs to take over 11 minutes. The bloat stemmed from common issues such as build dependencies leaking into runtime, uncleaned package manager caches, and the additive nature of Docker layers. By adopting multi-stage builds, the team used a separate builder stage to compile dependencies and then copied only the necessary artifacts into a slim runtime image. Switching the base image from python:3.11 to python:3.11-slim immediately reduced the image to around 210MB, and moving to an Alpine-based image brought it down further to approximately 85MB. The approach keeps heavy build tools like gcc and g++ out of the final image, significantly speeding up deployments without changing application functionality.

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