How we wrote a Python Profiler

Last year, Datadog started building a Continuous Profiler product, with the first languages being Java and Python. Java has profiling tools built into its Virtual Machine, while Python does not have comparable tools. Profiling is a form of dynamic program analysis that measures software resource usage, such as CPU time or memory allocation. It differs from tracing, which provides detailed timelines of application execution but offers little insight into code-level behavior and performance in the operating system. Datadog's Python profiler uses statistical profiling to observe a program's activity intermittently, offering a trustworthy representation of resource consumption with low overhead. The profiler consists of components such as recorders, collectors, exporters, and schedulers, designed for simplicity and compatibility across environments.