It does for the vast majority of things. If anything, due to very aggressive compiler settings, polars in python can be faster. It does use pyo3. Though basica

It does for the vast majority of things. If anything, due to very aggressive compiler settings, polars in python can be faster. It does use pyo3. Though basically anytime you use a python lambda (the equivalent of pandas apply) on a row basis, it will be limited by python speed/the GIL.