Released in October 2022, Python 3.11 stands as a landmark update for the language. While the world has since moved to 3.12 and 3.13, 3.11 remains the bedrock for many production systems due to its maturity and significant, measurable improvements over Python 3.10. This update focused heavily on two core pillars: execution speed and error clarity .
# Python 3.10 Traceback (most recent call last): File "calc.py", line 2, in <module> result = 100 / (50 - 50) ZeroDivisionError: division by zero Traceback (most recent call last): File "calc.py", line 2, in <module> result = 100 / (50 - 50) ~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~ ZeroDivisionError: division by zero python 3.11
Notice the except* (star-except) syntax. It catches all ValueErrors inside the group without breaking the successful execution of task "B". Ask any developer: "What is the worst part of Python?" Many will answer: Tracebacks that only tell you the line, not the column. Released in October 2022, Python 3
If you are starting a new project today, target . Your future self will thank you for the speed and clarity. Want to test it yourself? Install via pyenv or the official Python Docker image python:3.11-slim . # Python 3
If you are still on Python 3.8 or 3.9, here is why you should make the jump to 3.11 (or later). The headline feature of Python 3.11 is the result of Microsoft’s "Faster CPython" team, led by Mark Shannon. For years, Python developers accepted the trade-off of slower execution for rapid development speed. Python 3.11 narrowed that gap significantly.
ExceptionGroup and except* .
Python 3.11 adds tomllib to the standard library for reading TOML files.