Checking for Palindromes | Dataford Interview Questions

Your question is Checking for Palindromes. Start with the requirements on the right.

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Problem

Splunk Search may receive tokens that need a quick structural validation before further processing. Implement a function that determines whether a given string is a palindrome.

A string is a palindrome if it reads exactly the same from left to right and right to left. Comparison is case-sensitive, and every character, including spaces and punctuation, must be considered.

Formal Specification

Input: A string s containing zero or more ASCII characters.
Output: Return True if s is a palindrome; otherwise, return False.
The empty string and any single-character string are palindromes.

Use a two-pointer approach that compares matching characters from the beginning and end of the string. You may not modify the input string.

Constraints

0 <= len(s) <= 10^5
s contains only ASCII letters, digits, spaces, and punctuation
Comparison is case-sensitive
Every character, including spaces and punctuation, must be considered

Function Signature

def is_palindrome(s):