Why is my Python code faster than my C code?

Question

I recently began learning C, so as a performance test versus python I created the following code to loop through every possible 8 character alphanumeric combination. I noticed the python code ran roughly 20x faster than the C code despite the fact they were mostly the same code. I used PyCharm for the python code and CLion for the C code. Running the .exe file outside of CLion produced the same speed. Here is the code.

Python:

char_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u',
             'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9']

for char1 in char_list:
    for char2 in char_list:
        for char3 in char_list:
            for char4 in char_list:
                for char5 in char_list:
                    for char6 in char_list:
                        for char7 in char_list:
                            for char8 in char_list:
                                print(char1 + char2 + char3 + char4 + char5 + char6 + char7 + char8)

C:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    char charset[] = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's',
                      't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'};

    for (int i1 = 0; i1 < sizeof charset; i1++) {
        for (int i2 = 0; i2 < sizeof charset; i2++) {
            for (int i3 = 0; i3 < sizeof charset; i3++) {
                for (int i4 = 0; i4 < sizeof charset; i4++) {
                    for (int i5 = 0; i5 < sizeof charset; i5++) {
                        for (int i6 = 0; i6 < sizeof charset; i6++) {
                            for (int i7 = 0; i7 < sizeof charset; i7++) {
                                for (int i8 = 0; i8 < sizeof charset; i8++) {
                                    printf("%c%c%c%c%c%c%c%c\n", charset[i1], charset[i2], charset[i3], charset[i4],
                                           charset[i5], charset[i6], charset[i7], charset[i8]);
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Tried it myself, in a console, measuring the time for the first ten million lines:

Python:

$ time python3 main.py | head -10000000 | tail
...
real    0m6.075s
user    0m6.246s
sys     0m0.262s

C, compiled both ways mentioned in the first answer (now deleted):

$ gcc main.c -o main
$ time ./main | head -10000000 | tail
...
real    0m2.140s
user    0m2.350s
sys     0m0.300s

$ gcc -O3 -Ofast -Og -Os -funroll-loops -s main.c -o main
$ time ./main | head -10000000 | tail
...
real    0m2.119s
user    0m2.278s
sys     0m0.347s

My conclusion: Python isn't 20x faster at this but is slower, and what you observed is rather a slow speed of the consoles in which you ran the C program.