How to get a list of built-in modules in python?

How about this? Though, this gets a list of built-in functions and variables rather than modules...

dir(__builtins__)

help('modules') will give you a list of all modules, according to How can I get a list of locally installed Python modules?. Not a list of strings, though.

The compiled-in module names are in sys.builtin_module_names. For all importable modules, see pkgutil.iter_modules.

Run these in a clean virtualenv to get (almost) only the modules that come with Python itself.

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Note that a “popularity poll” will necessarily include modules that use old, discouraged naming conventions because they were written before today's guidelines were put in place, and can't change because need to be backwards compatible. It might be useful for something, but not for answering best-practice questions such as “How should I name my functions?”. For that, see the PEP8, the Python style guide, especially the “Naming Conventions” section.