How to reverse a string in Python

The simplest way uses slicing with a negative step:

text = "hello"
reversed_text = text[::-1]
print(reversed_text)  # olleh

One line, no imports needed.

Using reversed() with join()

text = "hello"
reversed_text = "".join(reversed(text))
print(reversed_text)  # olleh

This approach is useful when you need to process each character individually before joining them back together.

Common mistake

Don’t forget to rejoin the characters:

reversed(text)  # Returns <reversed object>, not a string
# Correct: "".join(reversed(text))

See Also

• str.split()
• str.join()