Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language focused on readability and extensibility. It is a cross-platform language, meaning the same code can be used on different operating systems, such as Windows, Mac, and Linux. In addition, its user-friendly syntax and ease of use mean that many people can quickly pick up and learn the language.
Python is an interpreted language, which means Python programs do not need to be compiled before they can be executed. This makes them quick and easy to debug while developing. One of the downsides of interpreted languages is that they can be slow compared to compiled languages like C or C++. However, when Python needs to be fast, it can call native C or C++ extensions that provide the required speed, allowing Python to act as a more user-friendly, declarative, domain-specific language on top.
Python is a dynamically-typed language, meaning programmers do not need to declare the types of objects explicitly. Instead, the type of each object is determined implicitly at runtime from its contents. Programs written in this manner can be introspected and modified at runtime using a practice called metaprogramming, increasing their suitability as domain-specific languages.
Python is a multi-paradigm language, as comfortable as a procedural scripting language, as it is a full-featured object-oriented language. In addition, it supports map-reduce style functional programming and offers other functional language features like generators and list comprehensions. With libraries such as NumPy, it even takes on a more declarative programming style, pushing the implementation decisions down to native extensions written in C or C++.