you are right, I dont think loading the file from disk should be part of it because OS process priority/queue, disk and cache and more headaches on figuring out what is slow. If you want to compare the entire execution including python startup overhead and reading from file and anything extra. it is closer 50 to 60 ms on linux and 80-90 ms on windows. (both hosts, not virtual machines)

My reasoning is that loading the input will eventually either pull from the website or disk. that is not part of the challenge. you could simply just hard code it.

So maybe you should look into adding code to your debug mode or both modes for measuring solving it instead of the entire process loading.

however, someone claims their rust code can do 250 microseconds, so I doubt you have much excuse aside from having “inefficient” code.(you are still fast, just not at the limit of your Language’s performance) only measuring my python algorithm, it is only able to finish in 32000 microseconds.

https://github.com/maneatingape/advent-of-code-rust/blob/main/src/year2024/day11.rs

however, now that I am looking at their main.rs file, they do calculate time for completion after process startup and only the algorithm.