Replace the first and last character by ' * ' then second and second last character and so on until the string has characters remaining
i , j = 0 , n - 1 NEW_LINE while j - i > 1 : NEW_LINE INDENT s [ i ] , s [ j ] = ' * ' , ' * ' NEW_LINE print ( ' ' . join ( s ) ) NEW_LINE i += 1 NEW_LINE j -= 1 NEW_LINE DEDENT