from itertools import permutations strWord = "CAT" ## Example 1 ## strWord = "GOOGLE" ## Example 2 ## strWord = "SECRET" ## Example 3 arrPermList = permutations(list(strWord)) arrPermStrList = sorted(list(set(["".join(arrLoop) for arrLoop in list(arrPermList)]))) print (arrPermStrList.index(strWord) + 1)