Project Euler #4 - Largest Palindrome Project - Python

Question

I solved the HackerRank version of the Largest palindrome problem (similar to Project Euler 4) in Python:

Find the largest palindrome made from the product of two 3-digit numbers which is less than N, where 101101 < N < 1000000.

How can I make this more efficient? My solution keeps timing out.

Here is the Code:

# Find the Largest palindrome made from two three digit numbers which are less than N


# Get the input and store it in an array
def get_input():
    limit = int(input())
    limits = []

    for _ in range(limit):
        limits.append(int(input().strip()))

    return limits

# Check if palindrome or not
def is_palindrome(num):
    if str(num) == str(num)[::-1]:
        return True
    else:
        return False

# Find the Largest Palindrome
def largest_palindrome(num):
    largest = 0

    for i in range(2,999+1):
        for j in range(i+1 , 999+1):
            prod = i * j
            if is_palindrome(prod) and prod > largest and prod < num:
                largest = prod

    return largest

# Get the Limits
limits = get_input()

for limit in limits:
    print(largest_palindrome(int(limit)))

Answer 1

Look at my previous answer

• palindrome is divisible by 11
• i and j can be only odd
• reverse loops 999 -> 1 and 999 -> i - 1 - first found palindrome less than n is our palindrome

Simplify code

str(num) is expensive, do it once

def is_palindrome(num):
    snum = str(num)
    return if snum == snum[::-1]

Instead of prod > largest and prod < num You can write num > prod > largest

Use list comprehension

limits = [int(input().strip()) for _ in range(limit)]