I think a big difference is Java you have to switch between `==` and `Object.equals` depending whether your type is a primitive (e.g. int) or a reference (e.g. Integer).

In Python the cases where you’d be using `is` are a lot more restricted, and a bit of an optimisation (although most style guides will require it in the cases where it makes sense).

There’s basically 3 cases where you’d use `is` in Python:

- the standard singletons None, True, and False (and for the latter two you’d usually use truthiness anyway)

- placeholder singletons (e.g. for default values when you need something other than None)

- actual identity check between arbitrary objects (which very rarely happens IME)