from sys import argv def is_interleave(a, b, c): if a == '' and b == '' and c == '': return 1 try: if a[0] == c[0]: return is_interleave(a[1:], b, c[1:]) except IndexError: pass try: if b[0] == c[0]: return is_interleave(a, b[1:], c[1:]) except IndexError: pass return 0 a, b, c = argv[1:] print(is_interleave(a, b, c))