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Palindrome Checker Function
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Palindrome Checker Function

EasyPython

Problem

Inc. In processes user-entered labels that may contain spaces, punctuation, and mixed capitalization. Create a function that determines whether a string is a palindrome after normalization.

A normalized string keeps only alphanumeric characters and treats uppercase and lowercase letters as equal. Return True if the normalized string reads identically from left to right and right to left; otherwise, return False.

Formal Specification

Implement is_palindrome(text), where text is a string. The function must return a boolean. An empty normalized string is considered a palindrome.

Use a two-pointer approach that compares characters from both ends while moving toward the center. Do not modify the input string in place.

Constraints

  • 1 <= len(text) <= 2 * 10^5
  • text contains printable ASCII characters
  • Only letters and digits are compared
  • Comparisons are case-insensitive

Function Signature

def is_palindrome(text):
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