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48-Hour Field Notes: curl Looked Instant. Python Paid a Handshake on Every Call.

I spent forty-eight hours arguing with an API that was not actually slow on the wire. My Python probe kept printing extra delay, while a single curl call still looked almost instant.

  • Python script caused slow API performance due to lack of connection reuse
  • Each request opened new TCP connection and TLS session, incurring overhead
  • Implementing connection reuse resolved latency issue and highlighted client-side impact

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