Python 3.15 RC1 Out: Lazy Imports, UTF-8 Default, and JIT Gains Ahead

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Python 3.15 has reached Release Candidate 1, with the final version scheduled for October 1, 2026. The release introduces lazy imports, allowing modules to load only when needed, which should speed up startup times for applications and CLI tools. UTF-8 will become the default encoding, reducing cross-platform encoding inconsistencies, while a new built-in immutable dictionary type offers a standard frozendict-style mapping. JIT compiler improvements show early benchmark gains of roughly 8–9% on Linux and higher on Apple Silicon, and a new low-overhead sampling profiler called Tachyon has also been added. Free-threaded Python remains opt-in, though it continues to mature with better ABI support for C extension developers.

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