m04-zero-cost

To minimize runtime overhead with C++ polymorphism, choose static dispatch via templates, Concepts, or CRTP when types are known at compile time, and switch to virtual functions or std::variant when runtime extensibility or heterogeneous containers are required.

For high performance C++ polymorphism, std::variant is best applied to closed sets of types in performance-sensitive code, offering a flexible alternative to virtual functions by avoiding vtable overhead while handling heterogeneous data efficiently.

You should prefer CRTP over virtual functions in C++ when compile-time type knowledge is available, enabling zero-cost static polymorphism that maximizes compiler optimization and avoids the runtime dispatch overhead inherent to dynamic interfaces.

Applying static polymorphism with C++ templates can cause code bloat and linker pitfalls due to type-specific instantiations, so this Skill helps quantify these binary size costs against runtime flexibility to find the optimal dispatch pattern.

You use C++20 Concepts to constrain templates in polymorphic code, which prevents template spew and misuse by explicitly defining type requirements, thereby guiding static dispatch and improving compiler error messages during high performance development.