highest palindrome with 3 digit numbers in python

Iterating in reverse doesn't find the largest x*y, it finds the palindrome with the largest x. There's a larger answer than 580085; it has a smaller x but a larger y.

This would more efficiently be written as:

from itertools import product

def is_palindrome(num):
    return str(num) == str(num)[::-1]

multiples = ( (a, b) for a, b in product(xrange(100,999), repeat=2) if is_palindrome(a*b) )
print max(multiples, key=lambda (a,b): a*b)
# (913, 993)

You'll find itertools and generators very useful if you're doing Euler in Python.

Not the most efficient answer but I do like that it's compact enough to fit on one line.

print max(i*j for i in xrange(1,1000) for j in xrange(1,1000) if str(i*j) == str(i*j)[::-1])