Finding Palindromes

During interviews, especially in live coding sessions, candidates are often asked to write a simple method to find palindrome words.

Here’s an example of such a method:
 

def palindrome(*, a: str) -> bool:
    return a == a[::-1]

In Python, the expression a[::-1] is used to get a reversed copy of a list or string. This is a slicing technique where:

• a is the list or string to be sliced.

• : is the slicing syntax (leaving the start and end empty means the entire string or list is taken).

• -1 is the step (a negative step reverses the order).

• a[::-1] creates a new string or list containing the same elements as the original, but in reverse order.

There’s another way to solve this problem:

def palindrome(*, a: str) -> bool:
    for i in range(len(a) // 2):
    	if x[i] != x[-i]:
            return False
    return True