Bitwise operators treat integers as sequences of binary bits rather than as whole numeric values: & (AND) and | (OR) combine bits position by position, ^ (XOR) sets a bit only when its operands differ, ~ flips every bit, and << / >> shift bits left or right, which for positive integers is equivalent to multiplying or dividing by a power of two. They're most common in low-level code — flags, masks, binary protocols — rather than everyday application logic.

1Understanding Bitwise Operators

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Left-shifting a positive integer is a fast, idiomatic way to multiply it by a power of two, and it's often used to define bit-flag constants readably, so each flag occupies its own distinct bit.

editor.html

print(5 & 3)
print(5 | 2)
print(5 ^ 1)
print(~5)

localhost:3000

2Practical Example

Here is a real-world application of Bitwise Operators showing how it is used in production Python code.

editor.html

READ = 1 << 0
WRITE = 1 << 1
EXECUTE = 1 << 2
permissions = READ | WRITE
print(permissions)
print(bool(permissions & WRITE))

localhost:3000

3Best Practices

Follow these guidelines when working with Bitwise Operators:

1. Use bitwise operators for flags, masks, and binary protocol parsing, not as a substitute for the logical and/or operators, which work on truthiness rather than bits

2. Prefer named constants defined with shifts over magic numbers when defining a set of flag values

3. Reach for a number's built-in bit-length method or the bin() function instead of manual bit-shifting loops when you just need to inspect its binary representation

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Tip: Left-shifting a positive integer is a fast, idiomatic way to multiply it by a power of two, and it's often used to define bit-flag constants readably, so each flag occupies its own distinct bit.

editor.html

print(5 & 3)
print(5 | 2)
print(5 ^ 1)
print(~5)

localhost:3000

Examples

Example 01Basic Usage

print(5 & 3)
print(5 | 2)
print(5 ^ 1)
print(~5)

Example 02Advanced Example

READ = 1 << 0
WRITE = 1 << 1
EXECUTE = 1 << 2
permissions = READ | WRITE
print(permissions)
print(bool(permissions & WRITE))

Best Practices

Use bitwise operators for flags, masks, and binary protocol parsing, not as a substitute for the logical and/or operators, which work on truthiness rather than bits
Prefer named constants defined with shifts over magic numbers when defining a set of flag values
Reach for a number's built-in bit-length method or the bin() function instead of manual bit-shifting loops when you just need to inspect its binary representation

Interview Question

How are bit-flag constants like READ, WRITE, and EXECUTE typically defined and combined using bitwise operators?▼

Hint: Think about giving each flag its own distinct bit.

Each flag is defined as a power of two, so it occupies exactly one distinct bit, commonly written with a left shift for readability, like shifting 1 left by increasing amounts for each successive flag. Combining flags with | sets multiple distinct bits into one integer, and checking whether a specific flag is present uses & against that flag's bit, then testing whether the result is nonzero.

Exercises

MediumPractice using Bitwise Operators in a real scenario.

View Solution

print(5 & 3)
print(5 | 2)
print(5 ^ 1)
print(~5)

Frequently Asked Questions

How are bit-flag constants like READ, WRITE, and EXECUTE typically defined and combined using bitwise operators?▼

Related Functions

arithmetic-operatorsbytesint()