What are the advantages for execution speed of programs provided by the use of the async/await construct in Python?

The async/await construct in Python allows writing asynchronous code that does not block program execution while waiting for input/output operations (such as network requests or file operations). This increases program speed, especially when handling many such operations, by efficiently utilizing waiting time.

Advantages for speed:

• Enables running multiple tasks concurrently without creating additional threads or processes.
• Reduces overhead compared to thread switching.
• Improves responsiveness of applications, especially network and user interfaces.

Example:

import asyncio

async def fetch_data():
    print('Starting download')
    await asyncio.sleep(2)  # simulate network request
    print('Download complete')

async def main():
    await asyncio.gather(fetch_data(), fetch_data(), fetch_data())

asyncio.run(main())

In this example, three tasks run almost simultaneously, saving time compared to sequential calls.