Checking if a number is a palindrome and is incrementing

Edit: Ok, this was a disaster of a question. I'll make sure to use timeit in the future

I solved a Codewars problem that had the user check if a number was a palindrome, was incrementing, and etc. After I solved it, I noted how the top solutions were much more simple, intuitive, and elegant than mine, although they were less efficient. I figured this was because code golf is more important in Codewars than efficiency, but after Googling around it seemed to me that perhaps a logically intuitive and elegant solution was more important in Python than an efficient but less elegant solution. Is there any truth to this?

To make this post more appropriate for the scope of Code Review, I will include two solutions for two problems, is_palindrome and is_incrementing. The first solution is the more elegant and logically intuitive one, and the second solution is my attempt at a more efficient one. I would like to know which solution is more appropriate for Python, and also what improvements could be made to my solution.

In Python, it is regularly suggested to use the following to determine if a string is a case-sensitive palindrome:

def is_palindrome(word):
return word == word[::-1]


Here is my attempt at a more efficient way to accomplish this:

def is_palindrome(word):
low = 0
high = len(word) - 1
while low < high:
if word[low] != word[high]:
return False
low += 1
high -= 1
return True


As another example, to determine if a number is incrementing, such as 234 but not 231 it is suggested to use:

def is_incrementing(number):
return str(number) in '0123456789'


def is_incrementing(number)
number = str(number)
prev = number[0]
for char in number[1:]:
if int(char) != int(prev) + 1:
return False
prev = str(int(prev) + 1)
return True

• Have you tested if yours are more efficient? The first is_palindrome took 1/4 the amount of time as your 'efficient' one, when I timed them. – Peilonrayz Nov 13 '16 at 23:05
• To echo @Peilonrayz comment, even by changing first = str(int(first) + 1), which makes no sense, into prev = char, your is_incrementing is (again) 4 times slower than the first one. Even trying to be smart by not converting back and forth between strings and integer but rather using division and modulus, you end up with something 3 times slower than str(number) in '0123456789'. – Mathias Ettinger Nov 14 '16 at 0:23
• Also note that Python is not C and that what you might consider efficient takes time for the interpreter to execute. On the other hand, short and clean solutions often leverage fast operations implemented in C. – Mathias Ettinger Nov 14 '16 at 0:39
• @Peilonrayz facepalm the pythonic way is dramatically faster, which I found out after using timeit. – Matthew Moisen Nov 14 '16 at 1:06
• @MathiasEttinger sorry that was a spelling error. Yes I timed it after your and Peilonrayz feedback and concur. – Matthew Moisen Nov 14 '16 at 1:08