`std::vector` is often said to be the default container, because it provides good baseline performance for common operations. Recently, I experimented with a simple API change that can improve the performance of a common usage pattern by 10+ %.
std::vector::reserve + std::vector::push_back in loop is sub-optimal, because push_back needs to check for re-allocation, but that never comes.
std::vector::resize + std::vector::operator[] in loop is also sub-optimal, because resize default-initializes all elements only to be overwritten soon anyway.
This article's author suggests push_back_unchecked.
I suggest std::vector::insert with pair of random access iterators with custom dereference operator that does the "transform element" or "generate element" functionality. The standard will have resize_and_overwrite hopefully soon.