Rendition efficiency about while loop.

Question

Why it takes so much longer to run the first set of code than the second?

words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
counter = 0
max_index = len(words)

while counter < max_index:
word = words[counter]
print(word + "!")
counter = counter + 1

-------------------------------------------------------

words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
counter = 0
max_index = len(words) - 1

while counter <= max_index:
word = words[counter]
print(word + "!")
counter = counter + 1

Answer 1

if you really want to timemeasure the code, you should use some reliable approaches like this (I excluded print operator to avoid I/O speed interfering):
====

import timeit

s = """
words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
counter = 0
max_index = len(words)

while counter < max_index:
word = words[counter]
counter = counter + 1
"""
print(timeit.timeit(stmt=s, number=100000))

s1 = """
words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
counter = 0
max_index = len(words) - 1

while counter <= max_index:
word = words[counter]
counter = counter + 1
"""
print(timeit.timeit(stmt=s1, number=100000))

====

Both code snippets take the similar time to execute, with aceptable inaccuracy
AND the second snippet is always slower btw due to additional calculations.

Answer 2

they both should run i a few ms.
if you are comparing run times on sololearn playground, its dependant on all traffic on the site and your own connection.