for this linked in discussion http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=1846027&type=member&item=5809095960126590978&qid=c6560208-ab58-45fb-9046-f8485124f631&trk=groups_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmr_1846027%2Egde_1846027_member_5809095960126590978%2Egmp_1846027

gistfile1.py

import sys
import random
from timeit import timeit

try:
    LISTSIZE = int(sys.argv[1])
except IndexError:
    LISTSIZE = 100

SETUP = "import random;LISTSIZE=%s;expected_range = range(LISTSIZE);mydata = expected_range[:];mydata.pop(random.choice(xrange(1, len(mydata))))" % LISTSIZE
TRIES = 10

print "Toms(%s): " % LISTSIZE, timeit("set(expected_range) - set(mydata)", setup=SETUP, number=TRIES)
print "Francesco(%s): " % LISTSIZE, timeit("n=len(mydata);expected_sum=n*(n+1)/2;real_sum = sum(mydata);expected_sum-real_sum", setup=SETUP, number=TRIES)
print "Artem(%s): " % LISTSIZE, timeit("sum(xrange(1,%s)) - sum(mydata)" % LISTSIZE, setup=SETUP, number=TRIES)

gistfile2.sh

 $ python linkedin_timeit.py 1000000
Toms(1000000):  0.975708007812
Francesco(1000000):  0.0880701541901
Artem(1000000):  0.178301095963