a=[11,22] b=a The ids of the two will be the same. Now, a[0]=1 The ids of the two will still be the same as both a and b are referring to the same location, changes made to a are made to b as well. Hence, a=[1,22] b=[1,22] Now if we do import copy c=copy.deepcopy(a) id(a) will not be equal to id(c)