test_serialize.py

import timeit
import pickle
import json

s = """{
    "glossary": {
        "title": "example glossary",
        "GlossDiv": {
            "title": "S",
            "GlossList": {
                "GlossEntry": {
                    "ID": "SGML",
                    "SortAs": "SGML",
                    "GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
                    "Acronym": "SGML",
                    "Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
                    "GlossDef": {
                        "para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
                        "GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
                    },
                    "GlossSee": "markup"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}"""

ob = json.loads(s)

with open('test.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(ob, f)

with open('test.pickle', 'wb') as f:
    pickle.dump(ob, f,  protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)

def load_pickle(f):
    return pickle.load(f)

def load_json(f):
    return json.load(f)


print("pickle:")
print(timeit.Timer('with open("test.pickle", \'rb\') as f: load_pickle(f)', 'from __main__ import load_pickle').timeit())


print("json:")
print(timeit.Timer('with open("test.json") as f: load_json(f)', 'from __main__ import load_json').timeit())