Rust and C++ performance on the Algorithmic Lovasz Local Lemma

1 SUMMARY The performance and ease of use of a programming language are two major considerations for developers when choosing the appropriate language for a project. This work compares C++ and Rust through the lens of performance and usability in both serial and concurrent contexts, and uses the algorithmic Lovasz Local Lemma as a test-bed. Performance is evaluated quantitatively through run time statistics collected over different instances of K-SAT while usability is evaluated qualitatively. It was found that although both languages make trade-offs with respect to usability, Rust outperforms C++ in both serial and parallel contexts. From this the author concludes that, regardless of the performance of the optimal implementation in each language, non-optimal but more practical implementations of similar development effort seem to result in higher performance code in Rust, likely due to Rust’s ownership and safety features.