how...

its the most 'pythonic' way to do it, so people mark it as best practices

No, your if statement is more efficient. The max function spends a few more CPU cycles: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Python/bltinmodule.c#L1681

Nonetheless, I prefer the solution using 'max' because of readability.
That's because for the vast majority of lines of Python, you'll never notice the difference between them taking 10 operations or 100 operations, as CPUs are really fast. But if the next coder has a hard time reading what you wrote, then that will hold back the whole project.

In the rare cases where performance matters (i.e. in the most inner loop of the most runtime intense section of the program), I would care about performance. But then I wouldn't necessarily write that part in Python.

great! Is this more efficient than using an if statement? Is it easier to read?

Yours also a good one!

Nice solution. The median can be simplified.

Can anyone explain the logic behide this?
This looks so elegant but I dont know how it works. TY

Every conversion I've tried so far results in -> "\u0086" where the tests require ->"\x86".
Casting with string(), converting with strconv and fmt.Sprintf all produce "\u0086".
Trying to create a new string results in "\x86".
Any hints you can give me ?
In Java I encountered no similar issue and solved it in a few minutes.
(Now that I can see the hidden issue, it's the same as my question)

I'm also fighting with the task, whatever I do I just cannot make it return the string literal rather than utf encoded string. (

Shit, solved, it was, actually, easy :)

I got this output (and failed the final tests) in exactly the same way because I was trying to use string() to cast a rune. In order to pass the randomized test, the code needs to be able to account for runes greater than a single byte.

I actually only had to make minimal changes to my code to pass the tests otherwise, so I'm leaving this for anyone else who may be tripped up by this - hopefully not spoiling too much :)