It conceptually uses arrays of code points, which need up to 24 bits. Optimizing the storage to use smaller integers when possible is an implementation detail.
Python3 is specified to use arrays of 8, 16, or 32 bit units, depending on the largest code point in the string. As a result, all code points in all strings are O(1) indexable. The claim that "Python 3 internally uses UTF-32" is simply false.
They need at most 21 bits. The bits may only be available in multiples of 8, but the implementation also doesn't byte-pack them into 24-bit units, so that's moot.
