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Best Software performance & optimization videos, as recommended on Hacker News

115 videos about software performance & optimization that Hacker News commenters keep recommending, mentioned between 2009 and 2026. Mostly talk, demo, explainer. Channels that come up most: CppCon, Molly Rocket, Strange Loop Conference, CppNow. Sorted by how consistently HN recommended them over the years.

The most recommended is How Python was Shaped by leaky Internals, Armin Ronacher, Flask framework: It is HN's standard answer to why Python cannot easily get much faster, and is recommended by people who work on JITs and alternative runtimes.

• talkHow Python was Shaped by leaky Internals, Armin Ronacher, Flask frameworkВидео с мероприятий {speach! · 15 HN recommenders · 2017–2025
• talkCppCon 2015: Andrei Alexandrescu “std::allocator...”CppCon · 7 HN recommenders · 2017–2025
• talkPreventing the Collapse of Civilization / Jonathan Blow (Thekla, Inc)DevGAMM · 14 HN recommenders · 2020–2025
• talk"Performance Matters" by Emery BergerStrange Loop Conference · 12 HN recommenders · 2019–2025
• talkThe Thirty Million Line ProblemMolly Rocket · 11 HN recommenders · 2018–2024
• talkCppCon 2017: Matt Kulukundis “Designing a Fast, Efficient, Cache-friendly Hash Table, Step by Step”CppCon · 9 HN recommenders · 2018–2026
• talkErlang Factory 2014 - That's 'Billion' with a 'B': Scaling to the Next Level at WhatsAppErlang Solutions · 6 HN recommenders · 2014–2022
• interviewHow Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation | War Stories | Ars TechnicaArs Technica · 13 HN recommenders · 2020–2026
• talk"How NOT to Measure Latency" by Gil TeneStrange Loop Conference · 9 HN recommenders · 2015–2026
• lectureRefterm Lecture Part 1 - Philosophies of OptimizationMolly Rocket · 10 HN recommenders · 2021–2026
• talkCppCon 2014: Mike Acton "Data-Oriented Design and C++"CppCon · 9 HN recommenders · 2015–2026
• talkJonathan Blow - Preventing the Collapse of Civilization (English only)bus · 11 HN recommenders · 2019–2023
• talkCasey Muratori – The Big OOPs: Anatomy of a Thirty-five-year Mistake – BSC 2025Better Software Conference · 11 HN recommenders · 2025–2026
• talkCppCon 2014: Chandler Carruth "Efficiency with Algorithms, Performance with Data Structures"CppCon · 7 HN recommenders · 2014–2024
• demo[EPILEPSY WARNING] How fast should an unoptimized terminal run?Molly Rocket · 6 HN recommenders · 2021–2026
• explainerFIXING the ENTIRE SM64 Source Code (INSANE N64 performance)Kaze Emanuar · 7 HN recommenders · 2022–2025
• lectureSimple Code, High PerformanceMolly Rocket · 6 HN recommenders · 2021–2025
• talkCppCon 2019: Chandler Carruth “There Are No Zero-cost Abstractions”CppCon · 7 HN recommenders · 2020–2026
• talkC++ and Beyond 2012: Herb Sutter - atomic Weapons 1 of 2alexsmail · 4 HN recommenders · 2020–2024
• talkSorting Algorithms: Speed Is Found In The Minds of People - Andrei Alexandrescu - CppCon 2019CppCon · 7 HN recommenders · 2019–2024
• talkJake Archibald on the web browser event loop, setTimeout, micro tasks, requestAnimationFrame, ...JSConf · 7 HN recommenders · 2018–2023
• talkAdvanced Topics in Programming Languages: A Lock-Free Hash TableGoogleTalksArchive · 4 HN recommenders · 2013–2024
• talkCppCon 2017: Carl Cook “When a Microsecond Is an Eternity: High Performance Trading Systems in C++”CppCon · 5 HN recommenders · 2017–2025
• talk"Outperforming Imperative with Pure Functional Languages" by Richard FeldmanStrange Loop Conference · 6 HN recommenders · 2021–2025
• talkZach Tellman - Everything Will FlowClojureTV · 4 HN recommenders · 2015–2022
• talkCliff Click @ VMSS16: Bits of Advice For the VM Writersoftdevteamuk · 2 HN recommenders · 2017–2021
• talkLarry Hastings - Removing Python's GIL: The Gilectomy - PyCon 2016PyCon 2016 · 5 HN recommenders · 2016–2023
• talkAndrew Kelley: A Practical Guide to Applying Data Oriented Design (DoD)ChimiChanga · 4 HN recommenders · 2024–2026
• commentary"Clean" Code, Horrible PerformanceMolly Rocket · 3 HN recommenders · 2023–2026
• talkProgressive Performance (Chrome Dev Summit 2016)Chrome for Developers · 4 HN recommenders · 2016–2018
• talk"Performance (Really) Matters" with Emery BergerAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM) · 3 HN recommenders · 2022–2026
• talkUnderstanding the Python GILDavid Beazley · 4 HN recommenders · 2013–2023
• talkC++ Exceptions for Smaller Firmware - Khalil Estell - CppCon 2024CppCon · 5 HN recommenders · 2025–2026
• explainerHow is this Website so fast!?Wes Bos · 4 HN recommenders · 2024–2025
• talkHalide TalkAndrew Adams · 5 HN recommenders · 2014–2021
• demoRefterm v2 - Resource usage, binary splat, glyph sizing, and moreMolly Rocket · 3 HN recommenders · 2021–2025
• talkCppCon 2016: Nicholas Ormrod “The strange details of std::string at Facebook"CppCon · 4 HN recommenders · 2018–2026
• demoShouting in the DatacenterBryan Cantrill · 4 HN recommenders · 2011–2026
• talkCppCon 2016: Chandler Carruth “Garbage In, Garbage Out: Arguing about Undefined Behavior..."CppCon · 4 HN recommenders · 2016–2026
• talkCppCon 2017: Chandler Carruth “Going Nowhere Faster”CppCon · 2 HN recommenders · 2017–2026
• talkStephan T. Lavavej “Floating-Point ＜charconv＞: Making Your Code 10x Faster With C++17's Final Boss”CppCon · 3 HN recommenders · 2020–2022
• tutorialHandmade Hero Day 001 - Setting Up the Windows BuildMolly Rocket · 3 HN recommenders · 2017–2021
• talkArmin Ronacher - A Python for Future GenerationsEuroPython Conference · 4 HN recommenders · 2017–2020
• talkcode::dive conference 2014 - Scott Meyers: Cpu Caches and Why You CareNOKIA Technology Center Wrocław · 3 HN recommenders · 2018–2023
• talkServo Architecture: Safety and Performancelinux conf au 2017 - Hobart, Australia · 3 HN recommenders · 2017–2017
• talkGoogle I/O 2013 - High Performance AudioGoogle for Developers · 4 HN recommenders · 2013–2018
• talkHow to Speed up a Python Program 114,000 times.InfoQ · 3 HN recommenders · 2015–2022
• talkCharlie Marsh: uv: An Extremely Fast Python Package ManagerJane Street · 3 HN recommenders · 2024–2025
• explainerNew computers don't speed up old codeMatthias random stuff · 3 HN recommenders · 2025–2025
• talkC++Now 2018: Matt Godbolt “What Else Has My Compiler Done For Me Lately?”CppNow · 3 HN recommenders · 2018–2020
• talkCppCon 2015: Chandler Carruth "Tuning C++: Benchmarks, and CPUs, and Compilers! Oh My!"CppCon · 3 HN recommenders · 2015–2020
• explainerFast Inverse Square Root — A Quake III AlgorithmNemean · 3 HN recommenders · 2021–2022
• talkHigh Performance Web Sites and YSlowGoogle TechTalks · 2 HN recommenders · 2009–2009
• talkBryan Cantrill on ARC: A Self-Tuning, Low Overhead Replacement Cache [PWL SF] 10/2017PapersWeLove · 3 HN recommenders · 2019–2024
• commentaryTwitter and Visual Studio RantMolly Rocket · 3 HN recommenders · 2020–2026
• talkMaking R run Fast - Jan VitekJohn O'Neill · 3 HN recommenders · 2017–2023
• talkA Crash Course in Modern Hardware by Cliff ClickDevoxx · 3 HN recommenders · 2017–2025
• talkRustConf 2016 - A Modern Editor Built in Rust by Raph LevienConfreaks · 4 HN recommenders · 2016–2018
• talkShared memory parallelism in Julia | Kiran Pamnany | Cambridge Julia Meetup (May 2018)The Julia Programming Language · 4 HN recommenders · 2018–2019
• talk"Compacting the Uncompactable" by Bobby PowersStrange Loop Conference · 3 HN recommenders · 2020–2025
• talkHigh-performance Tree Wrangling, the APL Way // Aaron Hsu // Dyalog '18Dyalog User Meetings · 3 HN recommenders · 2019–2021
• talkSpeed Up Your JavaScriptGoogle TechTalks · 3 HN recommenders · 2012–2025
• talk"NTFS really isn't that bad" - Robert Collins (LCA 2020)linux.conf.au · 5 HN recommenders · 2020–2025
• talkWhat's a Memory Allocator Anyway? - Benjamin FengZig SHOWTIME · 3 HN recommenders · 2020–2021
• talkParsing JSON Really Quickly: Lessons LearnedInfoQ · 3 HN recommenders · 2020–2026
• talkCppCon 2018: Stoyan Nikolov “OOP Is Dead, Long Live Data-oriented Design”CppCon · 3 HN recommenders · 2018–2021
• talkAlexis King - “Effects for Less” @ ZuriHac 2020Zürich Friends of Haskell · 2 HN recommenders · 2020–2020
• demoCan you fit a whole game into a QR code?MattKC · 2 HN recommenders · 2020–2025
• talkScale By The Bay 2019: Bryan Cantrill, Was He Wright All Along? Software After Moore's LawFunctionalTV · 2 HN recommenders · 2019–2023
• talkCppCon 2014: Jeff Preshing "How Ubisoft Develops Games for Multicore - Before and After C++11"CppCon · 2 HN recommenders · 2015–2021
• talkOculus Connect Keynote: John CarmackMeta VR · 2 HN recommenders · 2014–2021
• talkKeynote. Professor Steven G. Johnson | JuliaCon 2019The Julia Programming Language · 2 HN recommenders · 2019–2022
• talkDmitry Vyukov — Go scheduler: Implementing language with lightweight concurrencyHydra · 2 HN recommenders · 2020–2026
• talkFreeBSD optimizations used by Netflix serving at 800Gb/s - Drew Gallatin - EuroBSDcon 2022EuroBSDCon · 2 HN recommenders · 2022–2025
• talkKilim: Fast, lightweight, cheap message passing in Java.Google TechTalks · 2 HN recommenders · 2009–2012
• talkThe Truth about Rust/WebAssembly PerformanceGreg Johnston · 2 HN recommenders · 2023–2026
• commentaryHandmade Hero | Getting rid of the OOP mindsetvexe · 2 HN recommenders · 2018–2023
• talkAbseil's Open Source Hashtables: 2 Years In - Matt Kulukundis - CppCon 2019CppCon · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2026
• talkDennis Gustafsson – Parallelizing the physics solver – BSC 2025Better Software Conference · 2 HN recommenders · 2025–2026
• demoCygnusEd Professional in Action on an Amiga 2000Casey Muratori · 1 HN recommender · 2016–2023
• talkC++Now 2018: You Can Do Better than std::unordered_map: New Improvements to Hash Table PerformanceCppNow · 2 HN recommenders · 2021–2024
• talkBloat: How and Why UNIX Grew Up (and Out) - Rusty Russell,Matt EvansLinux.conf.au 2012 -- Ballarat, Australia · 2 HN recommenders · 2014–2015
• talkCppCon 2019: Emery Berger “Mesh: Automatically Compacting Your C++ Application's Memory”CppCon · 2 HN recommenders · 2019–2023
• talkGopherCon 2015: Go GC: Solving the Latency Problem - Rick HudsonGopher Academy · 2 HN recommenders · 2015–2020
• talkChris Seaton @ VMSS16: JRuby+Truffle: Why it’s Important to Optimise the Tricky Partssoftdevteamuk · 2 HN recommenders · 2016–2019
• talkReact.js Conf 2015 - Beyond the DOM: How Netflix plans to enhance your television experienceMeta Developers · 2 HN recommenders · 2015–2017
• talkPlenary: Performance Matters - Emery Berger - CppCon 2020CppCon · 2 HN recommenders · 2021–2022
• talkA 10x faster TypeScriptMicrosoft Developer · 2 HN recommenders · 2025–2025
• lectureRust at speed — building a fast concurrent databaseJon Gjengset · 2 HN recommenders · 2019–2022
• demoUnity DOTS vs Handbuilt: Sample ProjectNick Caston · 1 HN recommender · 2020–2021
• explainerFinding the BEST sine function for Nintendo 64Kaze Emanuar · 2 HN recommenders · 2023–2026
• talk'Fastware' - Andrei Alexandrescu [ ACCU 2016 ]ACCU Conference · 1 HN recommender · 2016–2021
• talkCppCon 2019: Matt Godbolt “Path Tracing Three Ways: A Study of C++ Style”CppCon · 1 HN recommender · 2019–2025
• talkBrandt Bucher – A JIT Compiler for CPythonencukou · 1 HN recommender · 2023–2024
• demoData-Oriented Demo: SOA, compositionJonathan Blow · 1 HN recommender · 2015–2020
• demo8088 MPH by Hornet + CRTC + DESiRE (final version)andrewmjenner · 1 HN recommender · 2016–2021
• lectureWhere Does Bad Code Come From?Molly Rocket · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2023
• explainerGradIEEEnt half decent: The hidden power of imprecise linessuckerpinch · 1 HN recommender · 2023–2024
• talkBringing SIMD to the Web via DartInfoQ · 1 HN recommender · 2013–2014
• talkReboot Develop 2017 - Jonathan Blow, Thekla Inc. / Making Game Programming Less TerribleReboot Develop · 1 HN recommender · 2019–2020
• talkSoftware is in Decline - Jonathan Blowgamedev cuts · 1 HN recommender · 2023–2026
• commentaryUserbenchmark - the April Fools that never ends2kliksphilip · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2024
• newsResident Evil Village PC DRM: Cracked Code Really Does Run Better - ConfirmedDigital Foundry · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2024
• talkKilling the Walk MonsterMolly Rocket · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2025
• talkModernizing Compiler Design for Carbon Toolchain - Chandler Carruth - CppNow 2023CppNow · 1 HN recommender · 2023–2025
• demoWindows 7 GUI slownessVooD · 1 HN recommender · 2011–2025
• explainerSomeone improved my code by 40,832,277,770%Stand-up Maths · 1 HN recommender · 2022–2023
• talk2013 Keynote: Chandler Carruth: Optimizing the Emergent Structures of C++CppNow · 1 HN recommender · 2013–2018
• talkMaciej Ceglowski - The Website Obesity Crisis [Web Directions 2015 Keynote]cat stevens (catb0t) · 1 HN recommender · 2020–2026
• talkRailsConf 2011: Aaron Patterson, "Double Dream Hands: So Intense!"O'Reilly · 1 HN recommender · 2011–2012
• talkReact without memoReact Conf · 1 HN recommender · 2022–2023
• talkWhy We Run FreeBSD current at Netflix – Drew GallatinOpenFest Bulgaria · 1 HN recommender · 2024–2026
• talkMultithreading the Entire Destiny EngineGDC Festival of Gaming · 1 HN recommender · 2017–2022
• talkScaling ZFS for NVMe - Allan Jude - EuroBSDcon 2022EuroBSDCon · 1 HN recommender · 2023–2025
• talkCppCon 2016: Chandler Carruth “High Performance Code 201: Hybrid Data Structures"CppCon · 1 HN recommender · 2016–2021