def solution(x, y): p, q = (sorted(x), sorted(y)) if len(x) > len(y) else (sorted(y), sorted(x)) for i, v in enumerate(p): if v != q[i]: return v tests = [ ([[13, 5, 6, 2, 5], [5, 2, 5, 13]], 6), ([[14, 27, 1, 4, 2, 50, 3, 1], [2, 4, -4, 3, 1, 1, 14, 27, 50]], -4), ] for i, o in tests: result = solution(*i) print (i, result == o, result, o)